Video games cause violent behavior

Video Games Normalize Killing, Doctors Say
Gamers Say Video Games Get Picked On

POSTED: 10:00 pm CST February 7, 2008
UPDATED: 9:32 am CST February 8, 2008


OMAHA, Nebraska -- Playing video games increases aggression in some children and young adults and normalizes killing, some doctors said.

Research suggests that violent video games can make children feel different. A brain scan of a teenager who has just played what was deemed a nonviolent video game was compared to the scan of a teen who had just spent 30 minutes playing a violent game. Indiana School of Medicine researchers said highlighted areas in the brains showed increased activity in the areas involved in emotional arousal.

"Exposure to violent video games, even E rated video games, increases aggressive thoughts, increases pro-social behavior and increases general arousal," said Dr. Greg Snyder, a psychologist at Omaha's Children's Hospital.



Snyder said exposure to violence in video games can desensitize a teen to the real thing.

Research from Iowa State University, Kansas State University and the National Institutes of Health reached similar conclusions. Compared to teens who played nonviolent games, those who played violent games had a lower heart rate and lower galvanic skin response when they were exposed to videos of real violence, the studies showed.

"The more normal it is, the more likely it is they're going to activate or engage in those behaviors when provoked or even unprovoked," Snyder said.

Tyler White, 17, said he has been playing video games as long as he can remember. He and his friend, Erik Grove, 16, play a game called "Gears of War." Both boys said they enjoy shooting games.

"With a shooting game, you can't actually go out and shoot someone," White said. "The whole thing with video games is, do something you can't already do in real life, at least that's what it is to me."

After they played the game for about 20 minutes, the teens said they didn't feel more violent.

The video game industry notes that the research also finds that teenagers have similar responses to violence in movies or TV. The industry said no one can prove a definitive link between virtual violence and the real thing.

Ryan Miller, the manager of general operations for Gamers in Omaha, said video games become an easy scapegoat when children turn violent.

"Just like any new media, it gets attacked. When any new genre of music comes out, it gets attacked. TV will, of course, get attacked. I'm sure, way back when, books got attacked," Miller said.

er research shows that antisocial behavior is not a result of the game, but rather the isolation that results when children play the games alonefor hours on end.

All sides of the argument agree that parental control is important, whether it's in the purchasing of games or playing them.

Lora and Chuck Payne said they don't restrict the types of games their son, Tyler, plays, but they do give him a time limit. Chuck Payne said he knows some teens who are allowed to play for hours a day.

When they're done playing, that's all that's on their mind. Kill. Kill. Kill. Well, one hour a day. Period," he said.

The Paynes said they have not noticed a change in the son's aggression level after a gaming session, but they watch what he plays and they talk to him about the games he chooses.

http://www.ketv.com/news/15249738/detail.html


Like I've been saying all along.

You forgot a

I will fucking kill anyone who tells me that video games have made me violent.

I have a sudden need to play Turok.

The black guy on Voyager?

Hide and seek, Dan?? Come on dude.

This story is outof Nebraska.

For the people with the neg reps....I didn't do the study. I just posted the story.

Wow, real conclusive "research".

Which means I should answer for it?

Video games do not excuse people of any age from responsibility for their own actions. Everyone has a choice, and bad influences don't make your decisions any less your fault. If the parents do their job, the child should be able to withstand examples of bad behavior in entertainment. And nobody, not the consumer and not any sub-set of the entertainment industry, should have their freedoms curtailed in the slightest in order to make up for the shortcomings of negligent parents.

This attempted correlation with violent behavior is nothing more than an attempt by self-important individuals to restrict something they don't approve of for different, purely personal and completely unsupportable, reasons. I don't like it, so let's concoct a bullshit reason to get it villified, restricted and maybe even banned.

Well they are working on supporting their theory.

You're right. That doesn't prove that video games change people's personalities and ideas.
It proves that playing Halo 3 (or any game like it) is exciting.

Well that's weird, I feel that I'm a better person after putting 3 days of my life in to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It's helped mold me in to the upstanding citizen I am today.

Video games I've always viewed as a release. I get stressed out in life, and sometimes when someone bumps in to me on the street I want to tear their eyeballs out. If I go and sit down and play Grand Theft Auto, I can actually do that and it makes me feel better. And there's nothing better than killing people online in Call of Duty - especially when they're the Russians. You can even talk shit to them. For me at least video games have the opposite effect, they make me want to kill society less.

Yea, I remember when lobotomies were common practice and considered to be the bees knees too.

As much as it may be cool to kill off a squad of Covenant, I can't say pondering going postal IRL has been made any easier or acceptable.

UA's right. People these days are too quick to blame everyone and everything but themselves for their children being fucked up. When I started saying "D'oh" as a kid, my mom simply stopped me from watching the show for a few months, not campaigned to get the show canceled because I sounded like an idiot. And since she's the one who drove my brother to Gamestop to get his video games, she didn't buy anything that looked violent. Which is what more parents should do--parent, and not expect the Nanny State to parent for them.

Only support this theory needs is a jock strap.

And with a test sample of one.

If we get to blame video games for violent behavior, then they should also get the credit for better hand-eye coordination and reflexes. Cheap car insurance for all teens that play video games 10 or more hours per week, IMHO!

Dang!! You one old mofo!

Riiigghhttt!!

absurd, huh?

Until someone proves that video games render people completely powerless to control their own actions, no amount of "support" for this theory matters in the slightest.

I think the road leads to an end to violent video games. It will be something fondly remembered from the past.

You're awfully casual about surrendering other peoples' rights to compensate for negligent parenting.

I say dump violent video games. Basicly I find most of those games a waste. Kids and young people should get out of the house and interact with others. Excercise. Ride a bike. Play sports. etc.

I like violent video games. Fucking fascist.

Dump the games and go get laid, whydoncha?!