Negative Effects of Video Games on Children - Term Paper Example

Negative effects of video games on children Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Executive Summary The video games have had both positive and negative impacts on children. This report has discussed the negative impacts of video games on children. From the research which has been conducted, there are many negative effects which are associated with the video games which are played by children. In the first place, this report has discussed that playing the video games lower the concentration of the children in academic work; children develop aggressive behavior and also promote anti-social behavior. In addition, the children who play the video games excessively get addicted which affect their social behavior leading to isolation thus affecting their behavior. This can be managed by monitoring the behavior of children and limiting the time they spend in playing the video games. Introduction There are a number of video games which are being enjoyed by the children globally. These games have had effects on the behavior of the children. From the research which has been conducted, it is clear that the video games have both positive and negative effects on the children. The most watched video games by children include the saints Row, dead space 3. Some parents are advocating for the children to watch and play the video games while others have restrained their children from watching the video games. This is dependent on the outcome of watching the video games (Anderson & Gentile 2008). The positive impacts of video games include; they enable the children to follow the instructions keenly since the children learn to follow the instruction while playing the games, they also enable the children to brain storm and come up with better ideas on how they can solve the issues at hand and also the children are able to coordinate various functions effectively. Further through video games, the children are able to learn how to multitask and plan for various resources effectively as a result of learning to plan for the resources to play the game successfully. The video games also enable the children to think fast and accurately as well as introducing the children to technology elating to computers. However, the research has also indicated that the video games have negative impacts on children. In this regard, this report will discuss the main negative effects of video games on children according to the research which has been conducted. Negative effects of video games on children From the research which was conducted by Ryan Van, there are a number of negative impacts of video games on children. The researcher found out that the video games affected his life in that they led him to addiction. The researcher found out that the video games have negative effects on the life of children with the family. The video games destroyed the relationship between the children and their families in terms of being social and the psychological functioning (Anderson & Gentile 2008). In the first place, the research which was conducted in the US indicated that the children are affected greatly by the video games. From the research, it was found that 8.5% of the children who played the video games did so at pathological levels. This represented the children of age between 8-18 years. The research which was also indicated in China indicated that 4% of the children who played games of age between 12 and 18 were also affected negatively by the video games. These addiction percentages indicate that video games have negative effects on the children and hence there is a need to regulate the video games on the children (APA 2005). Further, it was found that the children who play the video games excessively are not affected by the addiction only, but they are also faced with the risk of starting to play violent video games. In this regard therefore, the research indicates that the video games have the negative impact of addiction which destroys the relationship between the children and their families. Another negative impact of playing video games is that it has led to negative performance of the children in school. The children spend most of their time playing the video games and in this effect they lose their concentration in their studies. This is associated with the long time which is spent by the children to play the video games. The adolescents are also affected by the video games for which they play. The poor performance of the children in school is associated with the time management by the children (APA 2005). The time which is supposed to be spent in doing school work and attending classes is displaced and the children spend their time in playing the games. A study which was conducted between the young people of age between the years of 10 to nineteen indicated that the children who play the video games spent 30% of their time in reading instead play the video games. In addition, the children also spend about 34% less time in playing the games rather than doing their homework. This is a clear indication that the children spend most of their time playing games which displaces the time which could otherwise be used in reading and doing homework. This affects the performance of the children in schools in terms of academic performance (Anderson & Gentile 2008). The research has also indicated that the children who perform well in school spend less time in playing the games like the children who spend most of their time playing the video games. In this regard therefore, the video games affects the attention of the children which creates a deficit between the time spend in playing games and the time spent in playing the video games which in turn influences the academic performance negatively. In addition, the children are affected by the video games in that they increase the aggression behavior of the children. This poses the question that should parents be concerned with the behavior of children playing the video games? The answer is yes, because the video games affect the behavior of the children. A study which was conducted in the United States it was indicated that over 98% of the parents responded that the children should be regulated about playing the video games since they believe they have negative impacts on their behavior. This is especially the children who play the video games excessively. The research also indicated that the children who are fond of playing the video games tend to change their behavior negatively (Kirsch 2010). The children become aggressive in terms of thought and their feelings. The children who play the video games excessively tend to develop anti-social behaviors which affect their personal behaviors. However, some researchers have disputed this evidence and have argued that the video games have less impact on the behavior of the children. Those who support this argument argue that children who play violent video games tend to develop a behavior of being aggressive. This is because children who play violent video games develop a culture of behaving like what they watched in the video game. This affects their social behavior, thus developing aggressive character leading to violence while they are in school and in other places. In this regard, the video games affect the behavior of the children since they develop the aggressiveness as a result of excessive watching of the video games and therefore there is need to manage the children while they play the video games. Moreover, other researchers have concluded that the video games affect the culture of the children. Another research which was conducted in Australia indicated that the children who play the games frequently have been affected by the behavior of what they experience when they play the video games. The children learn to adapt the behavior and culture of other people. This has led to increase in social issues in the society because the children learn to inhibit the behavior like the one which is watched during watching the video games (Kirsch 2010). The children are prone to dangers which are exposed on the internet. For instance, besides the violent video games which affect the aggressiveness of the children, there are other games which expose the anti-social behavior to the children. The children should not be exposed to such video games since they influence the sexual behavior of the children at an early age. On the other hand, there are some games which influence the language of the children. The culture which is exposed to the children while playing the video games affects their way of communication. This implies that the children who are frequent players of the video games tend to develop a communication style which is not appropriate in the society they live in. This leads to communication breakdown between the parents and the children who have developed a different way of communication as a result of the video games. The research indicated that about 15% of the children who play the video games have different cultures from those of other children. Their language is different as they are influenced by the language which is exposed in the video games (Swing & Anderson 2008). This implies that the children should be managed while playing the video games so that they can morals which are acceptable in the society. The video games affect the children negatively in that the children tend to be socially isolated. This is one of the major negative effects of watching the video games frequently. It has been noted from the various researches which have been conducted that the children who play the video games most of their time tend to be isolated from other children. It is important in life that the children should develop a social behavior so that they can fit in the society by practicing the behavior which can help the children interact well with other children in the society (Lenhart et al 2008). The research proved that children who play the video games more frequently tend to spend most of their time playing the games while spending less time in socializing with other children. The end result is that the children tend to develop the behavior which is anti-social which cannot be accepted in the society. In this regard, it is important for the parents to guide their children while they are playing the video games. However, other researchers have indicated that playing the video games enhances the concentration of children, other researchers have disputed this saying that the video games are effective in the short term and not the long term. The research has proved that the children who play the video games have high short term concentration but not the long term concentration. This implies that the children who play the video game more often have short term concentration and their long term objectives are affected negatively (Lenhart et al 2008). A research which was conducted by Minneapolis based National Institute Media and Family confirmed that children who play the video games do not develop long term focus instead they concentrate on the short term issues. This is not good for the children since they cannot achieve their long term objectives rather they concentrate on short term goals. It is important therefore for the parents to guide their children while they play the video games. Further, the research indicated that the number of teenagers who play the video games is high and it is represented by 97% of the teenagers. This is a large number since it represents almost all the teenagers who play the games which include the children. The research further indicated that the teens who play video games which are associated with less violence is represented by 75%, while teens who play video games related to violence are represented by 66%. There are also those parents who responded that their children are not affected by the video games in any way and they were represented by 62% indicating that 38% of the parents said that the video games have impacts on their children (Lieberman 2006). This information can be represented by the graph below which indicates the research conducted concerning the video games; Figure 1. Statistics on video games (Harvard Medical School 2010) Category 1 – Parents of young video game players who say that the games do not affect their child one way or the other (62%) Category 2 – Children who play action video games; some of these contain violence (66%) Category 3 – Teens who play racing and Puzzle video games, with little or no violence (75%) Category 4 – Teens who play video games (97%) Recommendations In order to manage the negative effect video games on children, the following should be done. In the first place, the parents should monitor the way their children are playing with the videogames just as they monitor how they use the electronic media. This is the most effective way of managing the negative impact of video games on children. The children should be guided when they are playing the video games so that they do not spend much of their time of video games and forgo other important items (Lieberman 2006). By monitoring the children, they will be able to spend appropriate time in playing the video games. In addition, the parents should be attentive to their children and what they do. The children should be punished accordingly when they engage in anti-social behaviors. The parents have the responsibility of discipline their children so that they do not spend most of their time playing the video games which can otherwise affect their behavior (Rideout et al 2010). The way the children are brought up is the same way they will behave. In this regard, the parents should help their children to manage their time effectively and help them distinguish what is good or bad and how they can affect their behavior. Despite the video games improving the learning experience of the children, the parents should provide variety of games which the children should play to improve their learning experience. For instance, the parents should provide reading books which are interesting to the children and also the playing sports so that the children do not get addicted to the video games (Rideout et al 2010). This is important since it helps the children to develop a balanced behavior while they play their games instead of playing the video games only which may be addictive. Further, the parents and teachers should limit the time which is spent by the children to play the video games. Time management is an important aspect in the managing the behavior of the children while they play the video games. If the children are left free, they can spend much of their time playing the video games (Swing & Anderson 2008). The parents and the teachers should therefore limit the time which is spent by the children in playing the video games so that they can have adequate time to read and do their assignments. This will improve the performance of the children in school. The parents should also monitor the impact of the video games on their children. This is in the context that the parents and the teachers should monitor the behavior of the children as a result of the video games. When the behavior of the children is going beyond control like the aggressiveness of the children, they should be guided so that their behavior should not be adverse to their long term goals (Swing & Anderson 2008). Therefore the parents should monitor the behavior of their children before it goes out of hand. Furthermore, the parents should encourage their children to play the games which are group involving. This is done by selecting the games are played by multiplayers so that the children can be encouraged to play in groups. This is important as it helps the children to play the games which improve the group socialization instead of playing the games solely which can otherwise promote isolation among the children (Swing & Anderson 2008). This enables the children to learn the socialization skills. Finally, the parents should evaluate the games which are played by the children. The games are not only evaluated in terms of their violence but also how the children are engaged in the video games. By evaluating the games, the parents will be able to guide their children to avoid video games which can affect their long term mental engagement (Rideout et al 2010). The children will be evaluated once they have finished playing the games so that the parent or the teacher can assess the skills achieved by the children so as to understand if the skills acquired are positive or negative and encourage nonviolent games. Conclusion The video games are the games which the children play using the computers. From the research which has been conducted, it is clear that there are impacts which are associated with the playing of video games among the children. This report has discussed the negative impacts which are associated with the video game. In the first place, the video games lower the concentration of the children at the long term and also affect the academic performance of the children in schools since they spend most of their time playing the video games. They also develop anti-social behaviors and aggressiveness. However, these effects can be managed by monitoring the behavior of the children and limiting the time they spend in playing the video games. References Anderson, C & Gentile, D. (2008). Media violence, aggression, and public policy. In E Borgida & S Fiske (eds), Beyond common sense: Psychological science in the courtroom Malden, MA: Blackwell. APA. (2005). APA calls for reduction of violence in interactivemedia used by children. . Washington DC: American Psychological Association. Harvard Medical School. (2010). Video games and young people. Retrieved on 5th 2014 from http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Mental_Health_Letter/2010/October/violent-video-games-and-young-people Kirsch, S.J. (2010). Media and youth: A developmental perspective. Malden MA: Wiley Blackwell. Lenhart, A. Kahne, J. Middaugh, E. Macgill, E. Evans, C, & Vitak, J. (2008). Teens, video games, and civics. Washington, DC: Pew Internet and American Life Project. Lieberman, D.A. (2006). What can we learn from playing video games? In P Vorderer and J Bryant (eds), Playing video games: Motives, responses, and consequences, Mahwah: NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Rideout, V.J. Foehr, U.G & Roberts, D.F. (2010). Generation M2: Media in the lives of 8- 18 year olds. Merlo Park CA: Henry J Kaiser Foundation. Swing, E. L & Anderson, C. A. (2008). How and what do video games teach? In T Willoughby & E Wood (eds), Children’s learning in a digital world. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Read More