Introduction
In today's world, video games have become part of modern day life and a source of entertainment for people of all generations. Both adults and children spent hours each day participating in this form of indoor activity. Video games came about as a product in the new age of computers whereby computer scientists designed simple games as part of their entertainment and research. Continues evolution and development of better technology have seen this technology immensely improve. The development of captivating video games has seen the emergence of negative implications to both individual participants and society in general. The association of video games to violence increased aggressive behavior, emulation of negative action character behavior, addiction and time wastage, as well as negative attitude toward women, has been a concern to the government and policymakers. The following paper analyzes why video games should be banned.
Association of Video Games with Violence
Video games have been associated with violence and increased violent behaviors among children. The participation of children in adult-rated games has resulted in children becoming cyberbullies as well as bullies to their peers, becoming hostile and involving themselves in physical fights. Such violent behaviors are highly associated with the violent nature of the video games they participate in. Lack of parental control on the content or nature of the video games children participates in as also magnified the problem. Journal of the American Medical Association published in 2014 depicted the high likelihood of young adults who play video games to get involved in violent behaviors (Anderson, 2016). A good example is whereby young adults participate in boxing and fighting video games; such games educate them on the different fighting tactics which are applicable in real life. Such techniques may appear to be harmless but are dangerous if applied in real life.
Increased Aggressive Behavior
Increased aggressive behavior has also been noted among young adults who participate in these video games. Research also indicates that pediatricians and parents have also been in agreement that children portray increased aggressive behaviors once they continuously participate in video games. At an early age, most children cannot differentiate right and wrong behaviors. A continued explorer to violent, aggressive video games results to children viewing violence and aggressive behaviors as acceptable which encourages them to participate in such aggressive tendencies. In this regard, the aggressive nature of video games has been associated with a significant psychological impact on children and young adults who may turn out to be violent individuals.
Emulation of Negative Behavior
The participants of these video games tend to emulate the negative behavior of the characters in these games. Video games have been known to contain vulgar language which some of the participants adapt in real life. The active participation of adults and children enables them to learn more and adopt the character traits which are most aggressive and violent (Gentile & Anderson, 2003). The players of violent video games are known to have decreased pro-social behaviors which are highly associated by the close association of these players to the characters in the video games. Additionally, many games enable users to create characters and make certain choices to make the game more interesting. Most of these choices are fictional and cannot apply in real life such fictional experiences make it difficult for the participants to make ethical decisions in the real world.
Video Games are Addictive
Video games are addictive and result in time wastage, individuals playing these games tend to be lazy and have little positive participation in positive self-development activities. Most of the participants spend numerous amounts of hours playing these games as opposed to participating in physical activities. This has resulted in them being unfit over time. Both adults and children participating in video games for long hours have been known to be more prone to depression and inability to real-life situations due to the enormous amount of time in the fictional gaming world. Some of the adults who spend most of their time playing video games are mostly socially unproductive and provide a social burden since they are mostly unemployed. Children who also spend a significant amount of time gaming have been known to perform poorly in their classes which at times requires intervention from the parents.
Negative Attitude toward Women
Most video games portray women negatively which significantly affects social judgment and decision-making abilities of the participants. Such games have incorporated these negative attitudes and objectify women. Such games have been known to encourage violence towards women which has to lead to players who are mostly men to develop a hostile attitude towards women. A good example includes cases where the characters in the games treat women like sex objects and sections of some games which allow the players to kill prostitutes to recover money. This offers great concern over the possibility of the players of such games to pick such attitudes and apply them in real life.
Conclusion
In summary, it is clear that video games have an enormous amount of negative implication to the players and the society in general. In my opinion, the authorities and policymakers should take decisive action against video games and ban their sale and distribution. The failure for the gaming industry to self-regulate and provide more educative content which has positive implications to the society reinforces the need for a complete ban.
References
Anderson, D. (2016). 10 Reasons Violent Video Games Contribute To Youth Violence. https://www.listland.com/10-reasons-violent-video-games-contribute-youth-violence/
Gentile, D., " Anderson, C. (2003). Media Violence and Children. http://public.psych.iastate.edu/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/03GA.pdf
