(no subject)
I feel good, I'm at Delta right now. I just finished touching up my paper that I was worried about. And I have class in about 30 minutes, so that's liek 15 minutes of free time. :D. Anywhoo. I decided I'm going to post the paper. I know it's not very good but tell me what you think about it.
Edward Haenlein
English 111-12
Essay #2
October 14
Video Games or Neglect?
“A 12-year-old boy said he was acting out an anti-terrorist video game when he fatally shot his younger brother, according to authorities,” this is the first line from an internet article posted November 30, 2001. The article later goes on to say that the boys were playing a violent anti-terrorist game when the young brother wanted to make it more real. The younger brother then took a pistol from a bookshelf; the pistol appeared empty but had a single round in the chamber. When the older brother tried to take the gun away from his younger sibling the gun was fired.(sfgate.com) This is a common site for any violent crime where the person, usually a youth, had been known to play video games. The articles usually focus more on the video games and less on the more obvious facts, such as why the young boys were playing a game clearly marked “T” for children 13 and above, or why their father had a gun lying around with a single bullet in the chamber of what looked like an unloaded gun. In recent years video games have been receiving the blame for many violent crimes committed by youth, even though there is strong evidence to suggest that it isn’t the content of the video games, but quite possibly the lack of responsibility and caution of the parents, or other authority figures.
Similar to television when video games were first released the games contained things that almost every person would agree upon, but as time progressed the video game industry pushed the envelope more and more with what it would produce. Not only did the content become less family friendly, but the realism added to the games increase drastically, many people were concerned it would affect their children. It wasn’t until 1993 that the government stepped in, Senator Joseph Lieberman was the leader of the change. Arguing that the games had become to violent the Senator proposed that a rating system be placed, and upheld by law. In 1994 the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) game into place. It began with five ratings which were: EC for ages three and up, KA for ages six and up, T for ages 13 and up, M for ages 17 and up, and lastly AO for ages 18 and up. The ESRB later changed KA to E but the ages remained the same. The problem seemed to be solved, children that were not mature enough for certain games would be restricted by their parents and by retailers, and would then not be allowed to play certain games. Unfortunately retailers would often sell the games to children and the parents would not pay enough attention to notice what games their child was playing.
Most notably on April 20, 1999 one of the most controversial issues involving violent video games occurred, the Columbine High school massacre. During this event the two people to have committed the crime were often said to be known playing a popular shooting game Doom. The game Doom and other media related things, such as movies and music were often attributed to the massacre. If the sole reason the boys had committed this was because of the games they played, the movies they watched, and the music they listened to then there would be hundreds if not thousands of events similar to Columbine as the boys fit into a large demographic of people.
Any one that has played a video game will admit that they contain violence, often things not suitable for children. To often though parents do not take the time to observe what there children are playing. In the case where the boy murdered his younger brother they were playing a game clearly labeled for an age group higher then themselves, if the boys were affected by playing the game this would have been easily been prevented if their parents would have watched what they were playing. Even if the parents where unaware of what their children were playing the retailers that sold the game to the children should not have done so. The system that has been created to prevent children that are impressionable to play games works, but it does no good if the system exists but is not properly used by retailers and parents alike. Too often parents rely solely on the retailer to provide protection to their children. If a parent is unaware of what their child is playing they cannot place the blame on anyone but themselves, because they are the final say in what their children do.
Millions of people play video games throughout America alone, if video games were truly the cause the violent crimes that were committed would have drastically increased over the last decade. According to the FBI since 1994 the amount of violent crimes has decreased among teenagers. The same period of violent crimes decreasing coincides with video game sales increasing. Portrayed as always being violent video games usually contain very little harmful material, the ESRB states that in 2004 54% of games received an E rating, 33% received a T rating,12% received an M rating, less than 1% received an EC rating, and less than1% received an AO rating.(ESRB.com) Video games have not only proven to be harmless to the players, but also as a release valve for the anger and tension that the player has built up throughout the day.
The chief reason video games are targeted as the cause of modern violent crimes is most likely because they are a new form of entertainment. Throughout this century each new form of entertainment has been the blame of that generation’s problems, only to be accepted when that generation grows up. People will always want to shift the blame on things other then themselves, but when an adult loses his ability to play a video game because a child may obtain it. That is when it becomes a question of whether the video games cause the violence or the neglect of many parents does.
Works Cited Page
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2001/11/30/state1142EST0068.DTL
http://www.esrb.org/about_facts.asp
Edward Haenlein
English 111-12
Essay #2
October 14
Video Games or Neglect?
“A 12-year-old boy said he was acting out an anti-terrorist video game when he fatally shot his younger brother, according to authorities,” this is the first line from an internet article posted November 30, 2001. The article later goes on to say that the boys were playing a violent anti-terrorist game when the young brother wanted to make it more real. The younger brother then took a pistol from a bookshelf; the pistol appeared empty but had a single round in the chamber. When the older brother tried to take the gun away from his younger sibling the gun was fired.(sfgate.com) This is a common site for any violent crime where the person, usually a youth, had been known to play video games. The articles usually focus more on the video games and less on the more obvious facts, such as why the young boys were playing a game clearly marked “T” for children 13 and above, or why their father had a gun lying around with a single bullet in the chamber of what looked like an unloaded gun. In recent years video games have been receiving the blame for many violent crimes committed by youth, even though there is strong evidence to suggest that it isn’t the content of the video games, but quite possibly the lack of responsibility and caution of the parents, or other authority figures.
Similar to television when video games were first released the games contained things that almost every person would agree upon, but as time progressed the video game industry pushed the envelope more and more with what it would produce. Not only did the content become less family friendly, but the realism added to the games increase drastically, many people were concerned it would affect their children. It wasn’t until 1993 that the government stepped in, Senator Joseph Lieberman was the leader of the change. Arguing that the games had become to violent the Senator proposed that a rating system be placed, and upheld by law. In 1994 the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) game into place. It began with five ratings which were: EC for ages three and up, KA for ages six and up, T for ages 13 and up, M for ages 17 and up, and lastly AO for ages 18 and up. The ESRB later changed KA to E but the ages remained the same. The problem seemed to be solved, children that were not mature enough for certain games would be restricted by their parents and by retailers, and would then not be allowed to play certain games. Unfortunately retailers would often sell the games to children and the parents would not pay enough attention to notice what games their child was playing.
Most notably on April 20, 1999 one of the most controversial issues involving violent video games occurred, the Columbine High school massacre. During this event the two people to have committed the crime were often said to be known playing a popular shooting game Doom. The game Doom and other media related things, such as movies and music were often attributed to the massacre. If the sole reason the boys had committed this was because of the games they played, the movies they watched, and the music they listened to then there would be hundreds if not thousands of events similar to Columbine as the boys fit into a large demographic of people.
Any one that has played a video game will admit that they contain violence, often things not suitable for children. To often though parents do not take the time to observe what there children are playing. In the case where the boy murdered his younger brother they were playing a game clearly labeled for an age group higher then themselves, if the boys were affected by playing the game this would have been easily been prevented if their parents would have watched what they were playing. Even if the parents where unaware of what their children were playing the retailers that sold the game to the children should not have done so. The system that has been created to prevent children that are impressionable to play games works, but it does no good if the system exists but is not properly used by retailers and parents alike. Too often parents rely solely on the retailer to provide protection to their children. If a parent is unaware of what their child is playing they cannot place the blame on anyone but themselves, because they are the final say in what their children do.
Millions of people play video games throughout America alone, if video games were truly the cause the violent crimes that were committed would have drastically increased over the last decade. According to the FBI since 1994 the amount of violent crimes has decreased among teenagers. The same period of violent crimes decreasing coincides with video game sales increasing. Portrayed as always being violent video games usually contain very little harmful material, the ESRB states that in 2004 54% of games received an E rating, 33% received a T rating,12% received an M rating, less than 1% received an EC rating, and less than1% received an AO rating.(ESRB.com) Video games have not only proven to be harmless to the players, but also as a release valve for the anger and tension that the player has built up throughout the day.
The chief reason video games are targeted as the cause of modern violent crimes is most likely because they are a new form of entertainment. Throughout this century each new form of entertainment has been the blame of that generation’s problems, only to be accepted when that generation grows up. People will always want to shift the blame on things other then themselves, but when an adult loses his ability to play a video game because a child may obtain it. That is when it becomes a question of whether the video games cause the violence or the neglect of many parents does.
Works Cited Page
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2001/11/30/state1142EST0068.DTL
http://www.esrb.org/about_facts.asp