Videogame Violence & Children

[TRM]

I was assigned to write a paper for college (due April 29th). Anyway, the topic had to relate to children (and it had to be approved by the prof.) so I decided to choose videogame violence and children. The prof said that this was a broad topic, so she said I should make it a bit more specific. Anyway, does anyone have any serious ideas of how I can take this paper? I want to do something that will be semi-easy to find information on, and I am open to suggestions. Thanks,

Dave

[Algol]

I'd just give a history of the controversies. i.e. Chiller, Mortal Kombat, Night Trap, the creation of the ESRB... Can you do this?

[Yago]

A lot of different types of games are violent. Like fighting games (Mortal Kombat). You can generalize 3D shooters. Like when they said the Combine High School shooters were influenced by the game Doom.

[Push Upstairs]

I asked about this sometime last fall and while my paper talked about a few different things..one of my strongest was comparing how video games enforce aggressive behavior vs how sports enforce agressive behavior.

[sens_coll]

I think everyone should have the right to play what they want :-)

[Graham Mitchell]

I like Push Upstairs' idea. Also, maybe you could do some kind of history of legislation that has been performed to protect kids in regards to this matter. Other people have pretty much suggested the same thing, but this is focused more on laws. That way you could talk about how EBGames will sell GTA SA to a 4-year-old if nobody's looking because there's no penalty.

[devilman]

You might want to also comment on the increasing realism in graphics comparing stuff like the violence in Kung Fu Master onto the Mortal Kombat series etc?

[lendelin]

Well, your prof was right, the topic is too broad. :) (can only be done by someone who has a very good overview of the topic already)

You could do a more historical approach (the violence issue is as old as videogames) from the 8bit times to the Senate Hearings in '93 to the present. (Steven Kent in 'Ultimate History of Vodeogames has something about it in a couple of chapters)

...or you could do a more emprical approach, that means what does research actually show about the topic? This way you avoid a lot of assumptions, and look more closely into research itself.

For the second approach I cut and paste a text I have written about two years ago. There are also some bibliographical references (books and Internet sources).

I hope the text will give you hints and some ideas and get you going.

LECTURE ALERT!!! :)

SCIENCE, FADS AND POLITICS - A CLARIFICATION ABOUT THE EFFECT OF VIDEOGAMES ON VIOLENT BEHAVIOR

Ever since High School shootings and the tremendous success of Grand Theft Auto 3, violent games are under increased attack by concerned parents and educators. Flashy news headlines of crimes committed by adolescents who are playing games go hand in hand with interviews of politicians who like to ban videogames and point to games as a possible explanation for crime rates.

The “National Institute On Media And The Family” (1) which works very closely with Senators Lieberman and Kohl paints a very dark picture about the effect of violent games on violent behavior, (2) and refers to research about the topic. (3) Looking at the actual research I noticed that it was biased, and furthermore the Institutes own research didn’t justify their “jump-to-conclusions” findings of their website which is propaganda in science clothing at best.

To better understand what we know and don’t know about the effects of violent videogames on children, I took a closer look at the most quoted articles, research papers and literature reviews (not an exhaustive review, around 15-20 articles)

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND PROBLEMS - SUMMARY

The research findings are ambiguous at best. Around 50% of the research find a positive correlation between playing violent games and violent behavior. In order to balance the quoted research of the Institute I refer to some other other important sources:

----Time spent playing with videogames was not correlated with aggression for middle school kids (144 females, 134 males), although boys with a preference for aggressive games were perceived as more aggressive by peers. (Wiegman & van Shie, Social Psychology, 1998)
---- A literature review of 59 studies conducted by the Washington State Dept of Health concludes that current research evidence is not supportive of a major concern that violent games lead to real life violence. (Bensley and Van Eenwyk, Journal of Adolescent Health, Vol 29, 2001)
-----No differences in measures of aggressive thought were found for 52 3rd and 4th graders who played Mortal Kombat versus a basketball sim. (Kirsh, Childhood - a Global Journal of Child Research, 5, Volume 2, 1998)
---- An extensive literature review found video game violence to have little negative effects on their players <Griffiths, Mark. (1999) Violent Video Games and Agression: A Review of the Literature. Aggression and Violent Behavior. v 4, n 10>

What do these ambiguous results mean? Can we say anything about the effect of violent games on violent behavior? Absolutely not. The ambiguity is a result of fundamental research problems which plague all the articles. Here’s a summary of inconsistencies and weaknesses:

1. CORRELATIONS VS. CAUSE-EFFECT RELATIONSHIPS
Much of the research is correlational only. Relationships may be shown, but they may be coincidental or caused by other individual, family and social factors. Mere correlations are a big problem of statistics. You find positive correlations about ice cream consumption and birthrates, and squirrel populations and the concentration of Germans living in an area, but we certainly can say that eating ice cream doesn’t cause pregnancy and Germans don’t attract squirrels.

In this specific case it is possible that children who are violent in the first place are attracted to playing violent games, and therefore you find a positive correlation; but it says nothing about the effect of playing games on behavior, it might increase aggression, decrease aggression or might have no effect at all. We just don’t know.

While the Institute gives constantly the impression that playing violent games CAUSES aggressive behavior, they contradict themselves in their own recent research paper: ““Also, the findings reported here are correlational and do not merit causal assessment.” (4) This paper is often used on their own website as a reference for the implied dark picture that playing aggressive games causes aggressive behavior.

2. DEFINITIONS AND MEASUREMENTS OF AGGRESSION AND VIOLENCE
Violence is defined in many ways and thus makes drawing conclusions very difficult. What’s considered violent to one person may seem innocuous to another. Games like Mario, Zelda, Sonic, and even Saturday morning cartoon-like depictions of bopping, smashing, shooting, flying into and rolling over objects and characters might be considered violent. On the other hand, racing and sports games were characterized as containing minimal violence, although one might argue that hockey brawls and car crashing are violent in nature. Determining how researchers have defined and measured violence is the first step to interpret study findings.

There is some evidence that children who play violent games are more aggressive for a few moments immediately following gameplay. But even that finding is questionable, when you look at the ways in which “aggression” is measured (increase in heart rate and blood pressure, negative responses on questionnaires, toy choice, etc.) If children failed to show empathy in real situations, or tried to hurt another child following violent gameplay, THEN we’d have a problem. Even more so if such aggressive acts and feelings were exhibited over time.

It is important not to underestimate the degree to which children are able to separate fantasy from reality, which is at the center of this debate. Videogame experiences may be not acted out in real life. Furhermore, the ability to distinguish between fantasy and real life increases with age, and the mere imitation decreases dramatically when kids get older. (compared a 8 year old to a 14 year old)


3. SHORT-TERM STUDIES
Many of the studies examine only short-term consequences in the form of behavior immediately following exposure to videogame violence, as opposed to examining any long-term effects.

4. INCONSISTENCIES COMPARING VIDEOGAMES
Each study uses different types of videogames (e.g. sports, shooters, action/adventure) with different types and levels of violence. Some studies don’t report the type or names of the videogames used in the analysis. These factors make comparisons and conclusions difficult to ascertain.


AWARENESS, RESPONSIBILITY AND COMMON SENSE

I’m not saying that different games are automatically for everyone. As with most aspects of raising kids, it comes down to parent supervision and involvement. The responsibility of parents is key, not the activities of game developers, retailers, or kids who manage to buy an M-rated game. The effect of laws and restrictions are very limited as we can see when it comes to alcohol and smoking. Parents whose child committed a crime mention every reason but themselves, it is their moral responsibility to be aware of what their child is purchasing and playing in their rooms.
Can a game push an individual over the edge? Absolutely. But this is true for almost everything, from a Disney cartoon and reading “Lord of the Rings” to watching Oprah Winfrey and a church visit. As a society we are obsessed watching and playing relatively violent games like football, which can certainly bring an individual over the edge, but does it increase crime rates and is it dangerous for the morals of our society ? “Anecdotal evidence” as quoted in the Institutes website and flashy headlines in the news only create hysteria and scapegoats of problems which go much deeper than playing videogames. Educational dictators with a political agenda and politicians who go vote hunting with the simplest of arguments don’t enlighten the issue of violence and crime, they actually deflect from it.
What’s needed is not only better research, but also more common sense when it comes to the issue of playing violent games and violent behavior. Human beings, including children, have always been fascinated by violence and fear. Horror movies and roller coasters exist because we want to face our fear and control it. Grimm’s fairy tales, centuries old, are some of the most violent materials ever written for children. Theoretically, fairy tales and videogames may serve to promote aggressive tendencies or to release aggressive tendencies, as predicted by the social learning theory and catharsis theory, respectively. As highly developed mammals, violence is with us. We can limit it’s extent and irresponsible effects, but we can’t eliminate it, we can only channel it.

Might there be positive effects? It might be that playing violent games may actually help children channel or reduce their aggression. Playing sports has long been seen as a means of channeling energy and aggressive tendencies - could it be possible that playing violent videogames can have similar benefits? We just don’t know, we have to wait for better research. Until then, be aware of hysteria, academics with a political agenda, and politicians who exploit concerns of citizens for their own benefit - if it makes sense or not.


(1) http://www.mediafamily.org/
(2) http://www.mediafamily.org/research/report_vgrc_2002-2.shtml
(3) http://www.mediafamily.org/research/index.shtml
(4) http://www.mediafamily.org/research/report_issbd_2002.shtml

[thefireflowermario]

TY. I also have a similar assignment and that helped alot!

[Ed Oscuro]

Lendelin, that is top quality material right there. Great paper.

[NintenDk]

I'm not interested in the topic but it would have sounded better if it was:

Video games, Violence and Violins.

And it could have been how strings add anticipation excitement and suspence to scenarios in gaming.

[jboypacman]

you could talk about how videogames have changed over the years and how much darker they have become.