While there is a lot of discussion about violent video games and their connection to behaviour, parents should consider other factors that could influence how their children turn out.
One study suggests that when children play the ‘aggressor’ in a game, they feel rewarded for aggressive behaviour. When playing as the protagonist, players don’t experience such strong reactions to violence and aggression. Researchers therefore believe that playing as the aggressor creates a disconnect between feelings of aggression and empathy, making it more difficult for children to empathize with their victims.
Another study found that repeatedly exposing people to violent games can change neural pathways in the brain, so they become desensitized to such images over time. This means they can become desensitized to violent images, making them more likely to become aggressive because they cannot understand the consequences on the needed level.
Other factors that can influence behaviour are age, gender, socioeconomic status and the child’s personality. Each of these has some sort of bearing on whether children will behave badly or not.
Age
Gender
Socioeconomic status
A person’s socioeconomic status can also affect their behaviour. Children who come from low-income families may be more likely to behave aggressively because they live in conditions where violence is more common (drug abuse, bullying at school, joining gangs to fight for territory). This does not mean that children from wealthy families are less likely to be aggressive or carry out violent acts; it is just that the circumstances of this behaviour changes.
Personality
A person’s personality can also contribute to how they react to such games. For example, someone who has low self-esteem is more likely to be influenced by the violence they see; someone who enjoys feeling powerful may also feel this way after playing these games.
Intelligence
Conclusion
Every child is different and should not be judged by the same yardstick. Video games are just another form of art, and people should treat them with the same respect they would any other form of entertainment. Although there is concern that violent video games could lead to undesirable behaviour, research suggests there are many factors which lead to aggression.
Although there are many factors that influence children’s behaviour, violent video games do not appear to be one of them. Parents should consider other possibilities before they blame their child’s actions on a game.
The same pattern as we observe in video games and their impact on violence, we can say about gambling and addiction to it. The gambling games itself are not the source of the addiction because in this way everyone who touch dice or cards or play in an online casino in Ireland, USA, Malta or for example France will get addicted, thinking like that we will have whole societies addicted from gambling. In fact, addiction mainly comes from a person and their personality, and the same is with video games and their influence on the level of violence in the society.