Many parents say that allowing teenagers to play violent video games affect their behavior. Are they being overprotective? Can violent video games, such as Grand Theft Auto cause teenagers kill for fun just because they do it in a video game? According to Media Matters, MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski of the Morning Joe Show stated “it’s kind of hard not to make a connection (between gangs and the Navy Yard shooting) when you hear the shooter’s friends say that he would play on a life size screen these violent video games for hours and hours and hours.” (Erick Kan, Forbes Magazine)

Many teenagers love violent video games. They don’t think about the effects of playing for hours non-stop.  According to The New York Times, the young men who opened fired at Columbine High School, at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and other massacres had one things in common; they were video gamers who seemed to be acting some dark fantasy. Social scientist have been studying and debating the effects of media violence on behavior since the 1950s and video games in particular since the 1980s. The New York Times, goes on to claim that a burst of new research has begun to clarify that “youngsters,” teenagers who play violent video games, become more aggressive, as  measured by clashes with peers.

In a study conducted by the University of Bedfordshire, UK, and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, results indicated that engaging in criminal video gameplay had an “immediate effect on implicit measures” of criminal thinking. From these studies the results show that the more you play violent video games you develop criminal thinking, which might cause shooting and killing people. Many teenagers might think that it may not affect them to think bad thoughts, but they are forgetting that the more they play these violent video games they are going to have criminal thinking eventually.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My name is Marcus- Harris and i’m an eighth grader at  Premier Charter School. The reason why I supported this claim about violent video games is because I used to play violent video games and it had a huge affect on me when I was growing up. For example when I was playing (GTA) Grand-Theft-Auto for hours and hours I started to get criminal ideas because of playing for hours and hours. From this article I hope you purchase wise video games that will help you out and don’t mess up your future.