How are children and teenagers influenced by games such as Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty?
This essay will look at how many children are influenced into acting like gang members, alien soldiers and zombies, resorting to violence because of the video games that they have now grown used to playing. This has now become a problem as the children and teenagers are now beginning to replicate the actions of their game avatars.
It can be argued that some gaming designers should be more careful in thinking about what they wish to produce as the level of gore in some games are not suitable for children or teenagers who would like to play a video game on their consoles. This is because games like Grand Theft Auto involve missions such as a heist or an assassination which may teach young minds things which are not normally beneficial to them. The same case falls under Call of Duty as there are scenes in which you must kill others in order to survive. A problem with this argument is that the parents of these children shouldn’t be purchasing games such as these for their children because the games have been rated with a certain age for playing. Parents buy the games without being aware that they promote violence. Game makers are very specific as to what their games are about when they release the trailer so they are not to blame. The children enjoy the games and proceed to playing them without hesitation and learn all about gangs, fighting and virtual shooting. Hotwiring a car in the game may lead to a teenager attempting to do so in the future.
It can be seen that children and teenagers spend an increased amount of time each day viewing or playing video games, by doing this they are shaping their values, attitudes, and behaviours. For people who do act out aggressively, the results can be sometimes fatal. Monthly, the news is filled with blood-chilling accounts of crimes committed due to a copy-cat obsession with violent video games. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/gta-5-14-year-old-boy-kills-father-brother-inspired-by-violent-character-trevor-1442418 Also, a 14-year-old Idaho boy in Coeur d'Alene had committed a pre-planned murder of his family members after idolising a violent game character from Grand Theft Auto 5 called Trevor. The boy, Eldon Samuel III confessed on murdering his father, 46-year-old Eldon G Samuel, Jr, and his younger brother, 13-year-old Jonathan Samuel. According to the police, the boy was taken into custody