Video_Game_Violence

Anthony Hayek Professor Wynzel SPCM101 20 March 2009 Putting An End to Violence: Video Games and Television If we could share one thing in life, rather than money, I bet we would all wish for peace on Earth. Doing so automatically is probably impossible, but by starting off on the right foot, our nations youth, we can strive to preserve our nations safe future. In today's society , television shows and video games have become a part of most children and teenagers daily routine. Fictional or not, these shows and games take up more time in young people's lives than their parents do. I for one never beleived that technology was the reason our youth is being corrupted. I normally would blame it on the parents. However, in the past decade violence on television and video games skyrocketed, along with terribly negetive statistics reguarding young adults. Coincedence' I think not. By diminishing the intake of violence that kids today are being poisoned by, we can ultimatly live in peace and harmony, and quiet. You can sit there and tell yourself that this handsome man speaking to me right now is crazy, but the only thing crazy I'm about to tell you are the cold hard undeniable facts supporting why the television and video games are an infectious disease eating away at our souls. According to the Television Violence Monitoring Program, 61% of televison shows involve some sort of violence. 75% of violent scenes feature no immediate punishment of the wrong doing that was commited , obviously setting the wrong example. They also did a study reguarding families with school-age children. The results concluded that 74% of families with school-age children own video game equipment, and school-age children play video games an average of 53 minutes per day. Parents are less likely to supervise their children's use of video games than they are to supervise their use of television. While 88% of parents report regularly supervising their children's use of television, only about half report regularly supervising their children's use of video games. 9% contained some kind of violence. Almost half of all games contained serious violence, while 40% contained comic violence. In 41% of the games, violence was necessary for the protagonists to achieve their goals. In 17% of the games, violence was the primary focus of the game itself. Perhaps the pinnacle of video game violence came at the launch of "Grand Theft Auto", a game revolving around high speed chases, drug cartels, and mass amounts of bloodshed. Ben Berkowitz, a writer for the Washington Post, conducted a study of 517 boys ages 13-17, 71% have played the game. Why is this important' Out of those people, 34% of them have been in a fight in the past year, and all have played the game. On the whole, 62% percent of teenagers play games at least one hour a week, while 25 percent play six or more hours per week, rotting their lives away at a steady pace and potentially making themselves derranged. If this doesn't persuade you, maybe the story of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, or as you know them by the people who conducted the Colombine High School Murders in Littleton, Colorodo. You may know that they murdered 13 fellow classmates while injuring another 23, while eventually killing themselves, sending our Nation into mourning. Why am I telling you this' What you probably do not know is the fact that investigations lead to the finding of a home-made video game produced by the two boys, including people dressed as they were involving massive amounts of violence and killing. Lessening the degree of violence in video games and television could only help a world in desperate need of peace and love. Injected our nation with 3-dimensional filth on a regular basis is only adding to the cause. Our youth today is tomarrows future, and by everyone standing up against all of this violence we can provide ourselves, our children, and our children's children with the best quality of life possible.