Over the last several years, child development experts have communicated concern about whether media that portrays hurtful intent expressed towards others poses a grave danger to the youngster’s healthy development. Violent media exposure especially by youngsters aged ten years has gotten petite attention, raising alarms for researchers, pediatricians and parents. A certain study claims that the impacts of media violence on youngster’s welfare are insignificant. Nonetheless, certain latest studies offer strong confirmation that youngsters who watch violent media games have a higher likelihood of behaving aggressively. The current paper seeks to discuss the issue of exposure to video game violence in the society of today.
Video game usage has become prevalent in the life of an American youngster. Over ninety percent of children in America play a certain form of video games; a figure that increases to ninety-seven when solely teen-agers aged twelve to seventeen are considered. Even though high rates of video game utilization are normally widely linked to puberty, kids below eight years who play video games use a usual average of forty-five minutes on phone games, fifty-seven minutes on computer games, and sixty-nine minutes on handheld comfort games (Fikkers, Piotrowski & Valkenburg, 2017). Approximately seventeen percent of individuals who play video games are boys below eighteen years while thirty-six percent are females above 18 years. Moreover, Hispanics have a higher likelihood than blacks orwhites of categorizing themselves as video gamers. Approximatelynineteen percent of Hispanics claimthat the word “gamer” defines them appropriately, relative to,eleven percent of Africans and seven percent of whites(Greitemeyer & Mügge,2014).
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Concepts of adverse impacts of video games are likely to concentrate on players' demonstration of activities seen in the game. These impacts can be aggravated because of the games’ communicative nature. The General Aggression Model (GAM) is the most distinguished theory of such implications, which suggests that playing violent video games can generate cognitive characters of hostility that will be triggered in occasions where the youngster reason that other people are behaving aggressively(Greitemeyer & Mügge, 2014). Therefore, playing violent video games becomes a chance of rehearsing aggression acts that becomes more prevalent in the real world in the future. The GAM proposes that the virtual violence of video games can influence the feelings, thoughts, as well as physical arousal of a young player, influencing their understanding of other people’s behavior and swelling their personal aggressive conduct.
Risk factors upsurge the possibility that a child will come to be violent. Exploration on at-risk groups has revealed that certain youngsters have a more susceptibility to media influence than others. Data asserts that males are more desensitized to interactive conflict following exposure to violent media than females(Ferguson & Olson, 2014). Furthermore, persons with mental health issues or individuals watching media violence under the influence of drugs or alcohol could as well be vulnerable to violence. Another factor that plays a key role in a person’s predisposition for hostility is a genetic predisposition, which influences neurocognitive working, personality, temperament, conduct disorder, autistic spectrum illnesses, affective conditions, and schizophrenia. All could have the possibility to alteration a youngster’s conduct. Protective factors, on the other hand, buffer children from the possibilities of coming to be violent. For instance, with regards to religiosity, more religious children will manage situations less violently that non-religious kids. Moreover, close associations with non-violent friends reduce the likelihood of engaging in violence.
Continued exposure to video game violence can have several possible outcomes. The continuing impacts of media violence are alleged to be as a result of observational learning in addition to the stimulation and desensitization of emotional procedures (that is, the theory of desensitization). Observational learning concept proposes that once youngsters watch other persons’ behaviors and make ascriptions for their activities, this results in the development of mental scripts. As a youngster matures, normative views regarding right social behaviors become engrained and function as a sieve to limit unsuitable social conduct(Calvert et al., 2017). Therefore, the normative views and scripts are partly influenced by youngsters’ observation of conducts watched in media. Consequently, the model proposes that youngsters who are developing normative views and scripts may become hostile when they watch violent activities portrayed in the media. Consistent with desensitization concept, continued exposure to emotionally stimulating media makes an individual become accustomed to these emotions, and subsequently results in a drop in their adverse emotional reactions to provocations which would typically trigger such reactions. Desensitization itself is believed to make a person have the potential of behaving violently without feeling the negative emotions which could, under ordinary situations, limit aggressive conduct (Greenfield, 2014).
At the community level, pediatricians ought to inspire parents, learning institutions, and the public to instruct youngsters to be media knowledgeable as a way of safeguarding them against harmful well-being impacts of media exposure. The study has revealed that education about media, as well as attentive media utilization to parents, may lessen violent behavior in youngsters. There is an intervention strategy that to lessen youngster exposure to violent media which uses a cognitive behavioral therapy method with the parents to assist them to substitute educational and prosocial programs for violent material. Parents are instructed to adjust the material of their youngster’s watching and to lessen total screen duration. A community health method to decreasing the hurtful impacts of violent media on youngsters intensely rests on the active contribution of parents (Breuer et al., 2015).
An intervention plan for Greg is one that involves removal of Internet connections, TVs, in addition to video games from his bedroom by his parents. Moreover, Greg’s parent can make thoughtful media choosing and co-watch with him. Co-watching ought to encompass deliberating the unsuitability of the violent resolutions presented in the particular television show, movie, or video game and facilitating the youngster to create peaceful options. Furthermore, the parents should limit overall screen time to about 1-2 hours a day ( Ferguson, 2015). Therapy regarding regulating screen time has been revealed to be successful, for instance, only a minute of office advising regarding guns and media violence can result in reduced violence exposure for over 800000 youngsters annually.
Comparing video game violence to lethal violence, the two types of violence are aggressions, nonetheless, not all aggressions are violence. Lethal violence as an outcome of video game violence. Some violent video game implementation leads to lethal violence At least 526,000 persons are murdered every year due to lethal violence. The societal costs of video game and lethal violence have been huge. Many incidents have happened within and outside the United States where youngsters have killed other people due to exposure to video game violence. For instance, in the year 1997, a thirteen-year-old Noah Wilson passed on after Yancy, his pal, knifed him in the chest. Wilson's mom supposed her child was knifed to death as a result of a fixation with the year 1995 Mortal Kombat 3; the game which Yancy was very possessed with, and he alleged himself to be Cyrax, the character who utilizes a knife to stab the enemy (Lueke et al., 2018).
In conclusion, exposure to media violence upsurges the possibility of youngsters acting aggressively both in the short-run as well as of in the long-run. Exposure to media violence upsurges the risk considerably, and it upsurges it as much as numerous other elements that are perceived as community health risks. The societal cost of video game violence is huge as it leads to lethal violence which has contributed to numerous killings by youngsters. It is recommended that the parents should monitor and regulate their children’s use of electronic devices.
References
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Calvert, S. L., Appelbaum, M., Dodge, K. A., Graham, S., Nagayama Hall, G. C., Hamby, S., ... & Hedges, L. V. (2017). The American Psychological Association Task Force assessment of violent video games: Science in the service of public interest. American Psychologist , 72 (2), 126.
Ferguson, C. J. (2015). Do angry birds make for angry children? A meta-analysis of video game influences on children’s and adolescents’ aggression, mental health, prosocial behavior, and academic performance. Perspectives on psychological science , 10 (5), 646-666.
Ferguson, C. J., & Olson, C. K. (2014). Video game violence use among “vulnerable” populations: The impact of violent games on delinquency and bullying among children with clinically elevated depression or attention deficit symptoms. Journal of youth and adolescence , 43 (1), 127-136.
Fikkers, K. M., Piotrowski, J. T., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2017). Assessing the reliability and validity of television and game violence exposure measures. Communication research , 44 (1), 117-143.
Greenfield, P. M. (2014). Mind and media: The effects of television, video games, and computers . Psychology Press.
Greitemeyer, T., & Mügge, D. O. (2014). Video games do affect social outcomes: A meta-analytic review of the effects of violent and prosocial video game play. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 40 (5), 578-589.
Lueke, A., Hilgard, J., Zimmerman, I., Bartholow, B., & Gibson, B. (2018). Heroic video game violence and prosocial behavior.
