Video Game Violence Goes to the Supreme Court

My last two article are about the ongoing court case that is a the Supreme Court right now about a Californian law that makes selling ultra-violent or sexually explicit game to minors illegal.  The latter of the two gives you kind of a background information on other laws against video games and on the Californian law that was repealed.  The former article out of USA Today, talks about the right of the video game industry to make as violent video games as they deem fit.  However, it is the parents right to decide what their child can and can not play and a law stating such is a good thing.  It also mentions a poll that was taken that said that three-fourths of parents would support a law like California's.

A Source from my Annotated Bibliography

I have been doing research over video game violence and the effects on children and I would like to share one of my sources with you out of my annotated bibliography.


Walsh, Mark. "Mortal combat: video game makers fight for their right to be as bad as they wanna be." ABA Journal 96.11 (2010): 22+. Academic OneFile. Web. 22 Nov. 2010.  The article describes a Californian law that was recently overturned in an appeals court.  It continues on to describe briefly why it was enacted in the first place, what is currently going on with it moving toward the Supreme Court, and what lasting effects the decision could have.  This article is written for the American Bar Association journal.  As such its target audience is lawyers and those involved in the process of the judiciary.  This article is a current example that my topic is relevant and effecting us today.  It shows how we as Americans feel about the topic and how the decisions from this may affect our future.

A Source from my Annotated Bibliography

I have been doing research over video game violence and the effects on children and I would like to share one of my sources with you out of my annotated bibliography.


Steyer, James P. “Opposing view on First Amendment: Protect kids, not profiteers.” UsaToday.com. N.p. 28 Oct. 2010. Web. 12 Nov 2010.  The article is written in response to the Californian law that has been in review by the Supreme Court.  It was written by   James P. Steyer who is the CEO and founder of Common Sense Media, making this source slightly biased.  The writer says that producing violent video games is fine but also, that it is up to parents to decide what their kids can or cannot play.  The purpose of this article is to persuade readers that the California law is constitutional and should be passed.  I will use this article as a possible, more moderate, solution comparison to what I suggested in my project proposal, for proper handling of the video game violence issue.

Video Games

This site is a moderately okay site to use if you are curious about what both sides are saying about the effects of video game violence on children.  I think it fairly accurately portrays both sides without any bias meant.  It has some great statistics, including charts for helping you to visualize what the data is trying to explain.  However, this brings up a point I talked about a couple post ago about possible biases of certain studies that have been done.  Many of the statistics are from the Entertainment Software Association which is the trade association for the video game industry in the United States.  So you should take just about everything you read with a grain of salt and if you see something that interests you I suggest you do more research and dig deeper and come to your own conclusions.

A Source from my Annotated Bibliography

I have been doing research over video game violence and the effects on children and I would like to share one of my sources with you out of my annotated bibliography.

“Video Games.” ProCon.org. N.p. 18 Feb. 2010. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.  This website is an unbiased source that looks at both sides of the video game violence issue.  It has a list of many pros and cons side by side. It also has a chronologically listed account of the major events that started some of the controversy.  The purpose of this website is to inform interested parties about both sides of the argument.  This website is unique as it tries to keep and unbiased approach while showing the facts.  I will use information from this article to show pros and cons from both sides.

Rated V for Violence

This article informed me that not all states have legislation in place the limits the sale of video games rated for violence to minors.  I had just assumed since it was restricted where I lived that it was restricted everywhere.  I also had not realized that the Californian law that had been overturned and is now going to the Supreme Court was signed on October of 2002, it has been 8 years and it is still going through the court system.  As well as talking about how little some parents actually understand the ESRB rating system, or how many actually use it to judge whether or not their child should be playing a game.  The article throws in that with easter eggs in games, like Grand Theft Autos: Hot Coffee, is the ESRB rating system even valid.

Much Ado About Nothing

The Much Ado About Nothing article is from Psychological Bulletin and is really rooted in the scientific method and many difficult to understand points.  However, I also found the parts I could understand to be very informative about why the authors believe that many of the studies that have been done over the topic of video game violence and the effects on children are inconclusive.  They mention things like the bias of the public, to politics, and even large corporations paying to have studies done that can display the finding in a certain light to make them look however they want them to look.  Despite it being difficult to read at times and maybe a little dry, I believe that this article is probably the most unbiased source that I have come across while researching.

A Source from my Annotated Bibliography

I have been doing research over video game violence and the effects on children and I would like to share one of my sources with you out of my annotated bibliography.


Ferguson, Christopher J., and John Kilburn. "Much Ado About Nothing: The Misestimation and Overinterpretation of Violent Video Game Effects in Eastern and Western Nations: Comment on Anderson et al. (2010)." Psychological Bulletin 136.2 (2010): 174-178. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 8 Nov. 2010.  This article discusses how bias from the public and politics is making getting a solid scientific study done.  The article also talks about how lack of a consistent measurement on what scale violence is rated allows the studies to show skewed results.  The main premise of this article is that violent video games have almost no effect and have been blow out of proportion by bias and a lack of a consistent measurement on what scale violence is rated.  This article is unique that it comes from a psychological bulletin and while he tells his point he is always comparing it to another groups study.  This article is against my main thesis but has many good points rooted in good, scientific method.

A Source from my Annotated Bibliography

I have been doing research over video game violence and the effects on children and I would like to share one of my sources with you out of my annotated bibliography.


Irwin, Mary Jane. "Rated V for Violence." PC Magazine 25.4 (2006): 152-153. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 8 Nov. 2010.  The article talks about the rapid growth of video games as entertainment and how because of some of the content they are under attack.  It tells of some of the unnecessary violence and explicit material in Grand Theft Auto IV and how little some parents know about ESRB ratings.  The general purpose of this article is just to inform the reader about some of the legislation and controversies that might affect the video game world.  This article was published in PC Magazine and is aimed at people who are interested in the world of electronics.  This article is unique because it is in a PC Magazine but almost seems in favor of the laws being passed and not with the games.  This article has some good statistics and other information that I was unaware of and should support my case.

Does game violence make teens aggressive?

I just wanted to talk about the article from my previous post a little.  This article supports my statement that parents should be watching what their children are playing.  "Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine say that brain scans of kids who played a violent video game showed an increase in emotional arousal – and a corresponding decrease of activity in brain areas involved in self-control, inhibition and attention."  The study was inconclusive if the effects are lasting or worse permanent.  However, one of my science teachers once told us that some scientists believe that the human brain does not forget anything we see or study but that we just lack the proper way to recall what we have learned.  If this is true then all that violence is just floating around in our sub-conscience waiting to get out.

A Source from my Annotated Bibliography

I have been doing research over video game violence and the effects on children and I would like to share one of my sources with you out of my annotated bibliography.

Kalning, Kristin. “Does game violence make teens aggressive?” MSNBC.com. National Broadcasting Company. 8 Dec. 2006. Web. 1 Nov. 2010.  This article was written to discuss new findings from an experiment conducted at the Indiana University School of Medicine.  The article talks about the finding about brain activity after playing violent game compare to non-violent.  The purpose of this article is to inform about what a study has recently found and inform people that not all studies are objective, some can be influenced by big corporations, and that more research needs to be done in this area.  This article is unique because it uses brain scans and not just opinion polls to gather information.  This article will help my argument about video game violence a little; however, more research needs to be done for more conclusive answers.

Protect the Future

I do not think that anyone can deny that our children are the future.  It is the cycle of the world the old pass away to make room for the new.  I also believe that it is the parents duty to help to nourish and protect that child from any threat that may arise.  Parents should be monitoring what video games their kids are playing a little more closely.  Some of the video games are really just pointless violence and children do not need to be exposed to that at least until they are mid to late teens.

Also video game manufacturers should take more responsibility for their products.  They could put forth a little extra effort to make more educational games that would be both fun and mentally stimulating.  I also think that legislation could be passed either reducing the amount of graphic content in video games or making parents play a demo of a video game before being able to buy it for a child under the age of 18.

It's been a while -- Project Proposal

Hello again!  I had gotten busy and caught a nasty cold and never got around to updating some of the ideas and things that have been happening on my blog.  In consequence, today is the day that I hope to catch all my readers up the thoughts I have been having over a project I have been working on for my composition class.  I am going to start you off with my project proposal paper, and then take you on a journey through my thoughts from there.

Video Game Violence Proposal

Problem

            How much do children really learn from playing video games?  Does the abundance of violence and gore in a video game make children violent and desensitized?  Video games may very well be the cause behind childhood violence and if so, should possibly be made to be less violent and more educational.

Context

            A possible example of the effect of video games on the behavior of children can be seen in one of my best friends from my childhood.  We met in kindergarten and were together through high school.  When we were in kindergarten through fifth grade he was happy and we played on the jungle gym, and when we were older soccer, during recess.  After school we spent time riding bikes or were not together but were both avid book readers.  During the sixth grade he got a gamming system and began to play many shooter based games.  During the next couple years what we did together began to change.  Our time spent together usually revolved around his gamming console and when he would be getting a new game.  He became more and more interesting in shooting things and going hunting.  In high school his father bought a 9mm pistol for him to use.  We went with his father out in the woods and did some target practice with it and a .22 revolver.  After that every now and again, when his father was away at the National Guards for the weekend, we would sneak the hand guns out of the house, because we were too young to legally shoot them alone, and go and shoot at things in the woods.  It soon became hard to hang out with him because all he wanted to do was either play video games for countless hours or go and illegally shoot at squirrels in the woods.

Research

            I plan on using my blog space as my artifact by posting over different technological topics that may cause childhood violence or any contradicting information that I may find during research.  I will look on some of the library’s academic article search engines looking for related articles on the affects of video game violence on children.  I also plan to search the World Wide Web for other credible, and hopefully recent, sources of information over video game violence and its effect on children.  

Analysis

            I am unsure on what my findings would be.  I think that my findings would be to indeterminate to say that video games specifically or solely the contributing factor to violence in children.  Movies and even television have become increasingly violent and profane.

Solutions

            If video games are the cause of increased childhood violence then regulations should be put in place and enforced.  Games could be made to be less graphic in their displays of death because there is very little chance of them completely removing fighting games.  They could also make the regulations on graphic games more strict and pass legislation to stop parents from buying their under aged children the violent games.  They could also promote the production of educational or cognitively stimulating games by offering subsides to help combat the negative effects of video games.