Video Games

Table of Contents

Introduction
Video Games and Violence
Pros
- Pro 1: Playing violent video games causes more aggression, bullying, and fighting.
- Pro 2: Simulating violence such as shooting guns and hand-to-hand combat in video games can cause real-life violent behavior.
- Pro 3: Many perpetrators of mass shootings had played violent video games.
- Pro 4: Violent video games desensitize players to real-life violence.
- Pro 5: By inhabiting violent characters in video games, children are more likely to imitate the behaviors of those characters and have difficulty distinguishing reality from fantasy.
- Pro 6: Exposure to violent video games is linked to lower empathy and decreased kindness.
- Pro 7: Video games that portray violence against women lead to more harmful attitudes and sexually violent actions towards women.
- Pro 8: Violent video games reinforce fighting as a means of dealing with conflict by rewarding the use of violent action with increased life force, more weapons, moving on to higher levels, and more.
- Pro 9: The U.S. military uses violent video games to train soldiers to kill.
Cons
- Con 1: Studies have shown that violent video games may cause aggression, not violence. Further, any competitive video game or activity may cause aggression.
- Con 2: Violent video games are a convenient scapegoat for those who would rather not deal with the actual causes of violence in the U.S.
- Con 3: Simple statistics do not support the claim that violent video games cause mass shootings or other violence.
- Con 4: As sales of violent video games have significantly increased, violent juvenile crime rates have significantly decreased.
- Con 5: Studies have shown that violent video games can have a positive effect on kindness, civic engagement, and prosocial behaviors.
- Con 6: Many risk factors are associated with youth violence, but video games are not among them.
- Con 7: Violent video game players know the difference between virtual violence in the context of a game and appropriate behavior in the real world.
- Con 8: Violent video games provide opportunities for children to explore the consequences of violent actions, develop their moral compasses, and release their stress and anger (catharsis) in the game, leading to less real world aggression.
- Con 9: Studies claiming a causal link between video game violence and real life violence are flawed.
Discussion Questions
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