Does Violent Video Gaming Have an Effect on Children Research Paper

Does Violent Video Gaming Have an Effect on Children - Research Paper Example Kim et al (2010) have mentioned that â€Å"excessive playing of video games may result in impaired academic performance (Kim et al, 2010). It is an accepted fact that most of the modern videogames are thought provoking and hence it can improve children’s skills such as numerical ability, problem solving, decision making, synthesis, analysis etc. At the same time, it should be noted that spending too much time for playing videogames may have detrimental effect on children as far as the academic achievements of the children are concerned. The increased influence of video games will force the children to decrease the time spent for learning academic topics. In other words, children who spent more time for playing videogames may spent little time for doing their home works, assignments or project works. Failure in doing home works may result in poor academic performances of the children in schools. Poor academic performances of the children may generate criticism from family and teachers which may generate frustration in the minds of children. Increased frustration may often come out in the form of violent behaviors. In other words, even nonviolent videogames can generate violent behavior indirectly among children. Children may discuss the themes of the violent videogames they played even at schools and they may try to implement it in their real life also. For example, Grand Theft Auto is one of the most popular videogames among children at present. The theme of this videogame is a motor vehicle theft as the name indicates. Same way Mortal Kombat is another videogame in which the major theme is fighting. Such videogames will definitely encourage children to do the same activities in their real life as they... Children of current generation are not much keen in playing physically hardworking sports and games; they are more interested in spending as much time in front of the computers, mobile phones or television sets for playing videogames. According to Gouzouasis et al (n. d), â€Å"the type of extra-curricular activities like playing an instrument versus playing video games has differential effects on the person’s skill acquisition and personality development†. The themes of majority of the videogames currently available are violence. Many people believe that violent videogames play a vital role in the personality development of children. Moreover, many of the school violence incidents are happening as a result of the increasing influence of violent videogames upon children. Children who engaged in playing violent videogames may try to practice violence in their real life also. At the same time many other people believe that violence in videogames may not affect childrenâ⠂¬â„¢s attitude or character very much. Videogames playing may have some utility as far as the mental development of the children are concerned. However, playing violent videogames may always affect the children negatively. Unknowingly children may develop violent behaviors as a result of continuous playing of violent videogames. Since children have less awareness in segregating good and evil, they may often try to practice the themes they observed in the violent videogames in their real life. Many of the school violence incidents are taking place as a result of the increasing influence of violent videogames upon children. In short, videogame playing, especially the violent videogame playing should be restricted among children. Parents and teachers should focus more on student activities and they should assist the children in the selection of videogames for playing.