Terence Bhala

Ms. Gutz

Honors English p2

6 March 2020

Argument Essay

Nearly all parents are concerned about video games causing violence. But they have nothing to
worry about. Video games can be played nearly anywhere, on console, computer, phone, etc. Over the
past few years, more violent video games have been produced, and parents and officials think that these
games are making kids more violent. But what they don’t understand is that children can tell the
difference between video game violence and normal violence and it is not proven that children are
violent because of video games.

Children can tell the difference between video game violence and real-life violence. A study
conducted at the Universities of Illinois and Michigan “found that playing a particular violent video game
didn't make people more aggressive.” Game supporters have found out that as video games became
more popular, violence in teenagers decreased. Psychologist Christopher Ferguson said the attack on
video games needed to stop. "I've found ... no evidence of harmful video game or television violence
effects," he said. These studies show that children won’t harm people just because they’re playing a
violent video game

Children will not cause harm just because they see violence in a video game. Justice Antonin
Scalia pointed out that violence is not new to teens. For example, “Hansel and Gretel” where the two
burn a witch alive. "Certainly, the books we give children to read--or read to them when they are
younger--contain no shortage of gore," Scalia said. Children or teens clearly know to not be violent,
especially since they see it early on. Some teens even see video games as a way vent out.

A claim that video game attackers say is that video games are not good for the brain and
emotions. Psychologists Douglas Gentile and Craig Anderson say "[We] found consistent evidence that
violent games increase desensitization [and] aggressive thoughts, feelings, physiology, and behaviors
and decrease helpful behaviors,". But studies have shown that there is no evidence that children are
getting more violent because of video games. In fact, it’s mostly the video games that people go to when
they want to calm down or relax.

Video games do not cause children to mix up reality with made up reality, neither will they make
kids more violent. People should not make their kids stop playing video games just because they think
that they’re violent, but rather not limit what they play, as long as the parents are making the right
choices.