In this article written in 2008, there is a simple a clear message. Video games do cause aggressive behavior in some children and teens when they have long amounts of exposure to them. The article refers to a study done at Iowa State University. There were 3 controlled age groups and they had the subjects exposed and monitored to "violent" video games for six months. The test results came back positive, saying that they did become more aggressive than their peers. They even researched the lever of aggression in subjects that had an aggressive history. The research was done on roughly 1,600 subjects. It is hard for me to really voice my opinion because I think it is a relatively vague subject. I understand that exposure to the content in the games deemed "violent" probably would have an effect. But at the same time I completely understand the topic of exposure to violent acts could potentially deter you from performing them. When regarding to the surprisingly rare situations when an individual does commit similar acts that were previously interpreted through video games, I think it scares the public into believing that the video game content could cause an epidemic of ruthless teens destroying everything in sight. But when you look at it through a generalized lens, it seems as if the extreme events put a bad reputation on the responsible "gamers". This same effect can be seen in many other applications, such as movie violence, live theater violence, television violence, public violence, accidental violence, etc. In conclusion, I think the public has made the idea of video game violence and aggression in children/teens no more than good old fashioned reading material. Which will be forgotten, and replaced with the next best technological breakthrough that has violent content.
Link to Article:
Here
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