Effect of video games on children Essay

During the course of this research, a number of significant facts were found. The original topic question for the research was â€Å"the psychological and physical effect of video games on children†. The amount of information researched on the psychological effect was a lot and thus the topic question for the research was then changed to â€Å"the psychological effect of video games on children†. The main reason for researching this topic was the fact that there are a lot of young children in the world who play immensely violent games. Many children and their parents ignore the game rating. Many parents do not understand the adverse effect that those video games would have on the young child’s growing brain. Research which is discussed below in detail has proven that violent video games have a great psychological effect on the children which causes them to become aggressive adolescence. This in turn affects their social and personal life in a major way. The researched information shows that violent video games are clearly harmful to children and both parents and children must obey the game rating if they want healthy and rather peaceful children. Video games have been available to the customer for around 30 years now. The games have evolved greatly. They merely started off as 2D arcade games and now they have evolved to 4D virtual reality. One of the main researched subtopic has been video games and the time children spend playing them. The time that children spent playing video games varies greatly according to gender. A research/ study conducted in 2004 by Gentile, Lynch, Linder & Walsh stated that adolescent girls played video games for an average of 5 hours a week whereas boys played an average of 13 hours. Now this extended amount of time spent playing video games affects the children in many ways. The time which they could’ve spent studying is spent playing video games. This may appear to be a decline in academic achievement. The same study conducted by Gentile, Lynch, Linder & Walsh also states that teens also tend to become more aggressive in nature, more prone to confronting their teachers and also get into a lot of fights with their peers. The research shows that video games not only affect the child psychologically but also socially. It affects the person’s relationship with friends and close ones. In a study by Walsh in 2000, majority of the teenagers admitted that their parents don’t impose time limit. In a survey conducted by myself, the results clearly show that 30% of the people play video games more than four times a week. Another deeply researched subtopic has been video game rating. Parents tend to ignore the game ratings of a game and also the warnings on the game that say that they are unsuitable for children. A research authorised by the UK game industry found that parents let young children play adult games. The main reason for this was the fact that parents thought their children were mature enough to play games way beyond their age level. This thought process of parents is much objected by Modulum researcher Jurgen Freund. He suggests that parents think their children are mature and that the game will not have an influence on the child. Parents seem to perceive age ratings as a guide but not as a prohibition according to him. It has been reported that 39% of UK parents ignore the rating on videogames. A survey conducted by myself indicated that 50% of the children do not follow the game ratings. Video games are very addictive. This is because, once the player engages into the game, he/she is in the game world. The real world is switched off for him/her for that period of time. As the player has no idea about the real world, he/she do not realise the amount of time spent playing the game. Addiction of video games has caused many serious effects on children over the past years. These serious effects also include death. On December 27th 2004, a thirteen year old Warcraft player committed suicide by jumping off a building in order to join the heroes of the game. This aim of joining the heroes was indicated by his suicide note. In conclusion it is clearly evident that video games have a very negative effect on children and their growth. Firstly, children should be monitored throughout their young life so that nothing bad affects them in their childhood as this will affect the child in his later years. Parents should also have a hold on the amount of time the child spends playing video games. The time spent should not interfere with the time that the child could have spent playing with friends and socialising. Parents should strictly follow the game ratings and should instil the idea of following the game rating into their children. Young children should not play adult games. This should be done because violent games cause the children to become more aggressive and in turn it grows the kids into violent adolescents. These violent adolescents grow into aggressive, angry and rather violent adults. If the person is violent it is highly likely that that person will not have many friends and will not often socialise. This will cause that person to be lonely and rather depressed. The parents should enforce strong rules regarding the time spent playing the video games and set a certain time weekly that the children may play the video games. The parents must also strictly follow the game ratings and make sure that they only buy games for their children which fit their age group. Parents should make sure that their kids do not become ‘gameholics’ but rather should spend more time with friends and be out socially. If all the above are followed by parents then there is a reduced risk of psychological problems developing in children from a very young age. If looked carefully it is evident that parents play a very important role in the child’s growth and development. Gentile, D. A. , Lynch, P. , Linder, J. & Walsh, D. (2004). The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 5-22 [ 2 ]. Walsh, D. (2000). Interactive violence and children: Testimony submitted to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate. (March 21, 2000. ) [ 3 ]. Andrea Norcia, (26/06/2010) The Impact of Video Games on Children, http://www. pamf. org/preteen/parents/videogames. html, 18/11/2011 [ 4 ]. Swiss research association [ 5 ]. Chief executive officer of Modulum [ 6 ]. Alfred Hermida , (27/04/2010) Parents ’ignore game age ratings’ , http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/technology/4118270. stm, 17/11/2011 [ 7 ]. Ricky Lam, (November 7, 2010 ) Top 10 Cases of Extreme Game Addiction, http://listverse. com/2010/11/07/top-10-cases-of-extreme-game-addiction/, 16/11/2011.