Video Games Bad for America’s Kids

WHS Lions Pride Original Story:

by Chanel Moss

The video game industry is one of the biggest in America. The industry is a 10.5 billion dollar revenue. 67% of America’s households are video game playing households and 32% of video game players are under eighteen.

Every year companies release a new game and people fight to get them. Kids beg mom and dad for the new Call Of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. Every year the games get more graphic and violent. A lot of people don’t like to think video games affect the minds or actions of kids but they do. They may not force kids to go out and do violent things, but it shifts their attitudes and ways of thinking.

A lot of video games like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas or war games like Call of Duty or Modern Warfare are only allowedto be purchased by adults, 18 years or older, but underage kids seem to still get their hands on it by them getting their parents to buy them and some of the parents don’t even know what’s on the game that they are buying.

There was a case of a young man named, Zachary Burgess. .According to an arrest report, Burgess stole a parked and running truck while a passenger sat inside of the vehicle and began to drive wildly around a parking lot. You’d never guess this grown man’s inspiration for this crime, “I wanted to see what it was really like to play the video game, Grand Theft Auto.” Look at that, a grown man doing a brainless crime just because of a video game. If an adult can commit crimes being inspired by video games, imagine what an underage child could do.

A lot of the more violent video-games also use lots of foul language. Young kids being exposed to foul language often pick up on that and start to use it themselves. Could you imagine a ten year old walking around swearing? Sarah Snow says, “They corrupt kids; video games will slowly make people think violence is okay, like my brother he thinks violence is the answer to everything.” Video games might seem just like a harmless make believe thing but it’s not. Next time an underage child asks their parent for a video game; they should re-evaluate what they are actually buying for an underage child.

Sources:

http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp

http://www.esrb.org/about/video-game-industry-statistics.jsp