Do Voilent Video Games Cause Violence in Children?

Carolina Hernandez Do Violent Video Games Cause Violence In Children? 1. Introduction A. Attention Catcher: Imagine you’re in your room, all the lights are off, and you TV is on, you sit there holding a game controller, the words GAME OVER are flashing on the screen. The game was hard, you killed as many zombies as you could, and this is what you get?! A game over screen?! You play the level again. Mid-way through the level, someone opens the door to your room.The light stings your eyes, momentarily forgetting about the game, your character dies because a zombie ate his brains. You get so angry; you punch the person who made you lose the game! B. Listener Relevance Link: Most of you in this room play video games, right? Do you ever feel†¦angry after playing a violent video game? If you’re one of the people who don’t, it’s mostly because of your personality. If you’re an angrier person by nature, these video games should affect you more if you a re. C. Speaker Credibility Statement:Let me start this off by saying I love video games. I have a video game in my backpack right now. Most of the video games I play are adventure games that involve fighting. Usually I’m not affected by them, unless I get competitive about it. My brother and I used to fight after playing a game if one of us lost, and sometimes it would result in fist fighting. My brother and I don’t play video games together that much anymore. Still, after playing a particularly violent game, I will not be angry, but my brother will.This is because we’re different types of people with different personalities, which results in different reactions. Video games never made me want to kill someone. D. Thesis Statement: All this results in one questions, do violent video games affect the player’s violent tendencies? E. Preview: In this speech, I’ll talk about the research done on this topic, and it’s results on how it affects chil dren and teen’s violent tendencies. 2. Body A. First Main Point These days, video games about violence are the most popular types of games.The rating system the games are put through should be the answer, but when states have tried to keep underage children from playing â€Å"M† games, they are often challenged in court in favor of the said child who wants to play the game. Though video games DO cause violence, they are over-dramatized to how MUCH violence they cause. In one of my sources, the mild-manner personality types were least affected, while angry people by nature where affected more. 1. Sub Point Professor Patrick Markey Says â€Å"Their personality made a big difference.People who are extremely angry tend to be much more affected by violent videogames than people who are not angry and of course the opposite is true that people who are not angry are virtually unaffected by violent videogames. So it’s both the person and, in essence, the situation. â₠¬  B. Second Main Point In 2003, teenager Devin Moore shot and killed 3 people in a police station in Alabama. After being found and caught by the police, Moore told them in a police interview â€Å"Life is like a video game. Everybody’s got to die sometime. This resulted in a lawsuit against the advertisers of Grand Theft Auto, the game that two of the families of the victims claimed compelled him to do what he did. (The game is like a simulated cop-killer. ) 1. Sub Point What I just told you was an extreme case of violent video games gone wrong. Most of the people who do play Grand Theft Auto play it for fun. Nicholas Hammer, a law student at the time who was demonstrating the video game for the source, says he, like every other person who plays violent video games, plays them for fun.But did you ever think that the reason a person did this was not just the video game, but the person itself and their environment? 2. Sub Point Moore was compelled to do what he did is based on his environment. Moore came from a troubled home and bounced from foster family to foster family. When you are a teenager, the part of your brain that manages things like impulse control and urges, is under development during teen years, not fully developed until our early twenties.David Walsh, a Children’s psychologist says â€Å"†¦ when a young man with a developing brain, already angry, spends hours and hours and hours rehearsing violent acts, and then, and he's put in this situation of emotional stress, there's a likelihood that he will literally go to that familiar pattern that's been wired repeatedly, perhaps thousands and thousands of times,† So it was not really the video game in this scenario, but the type of person and their respective environments.C. Third Main Point Many states have tried to ban sales of rated â€Å"M† video games to those under 17; Minnesota even tried to make a law that would fine children caught with â€Å"M† video games that was unsuccessful. I believe that there should be certain laws made against minors buying â€Å"M† video games. 1. Sub Point I believe that there should be a law that prohibits minors from buying rated â€Å"M† games unless there is a parent or guardian there with them.This would make it harder for children to buy video games that are â€Å"M† because their parents would most likely not approve of them. 2. Sub Point Demos of the video game should be offered to parents for the parent to play before buying it for their child. If a parent is offered a demo, they are more likely to play it to see if they want their child to be playing this before they give them the actual game. 3. Sub PointVideo game stores should have a mandatory ID or Driver’s License check when a minor is buying a rated â€Å"M† video game. 3. Conclusion A. Thesis Restatement Video games don’t really have a large part in violent tendencies, but it still depends on the type of person or their environment. But there should still be laws not allowing minors to buy rated â€Å"M† games. B. Main Point Summary These main points are all about how video games, and how to stop minors from buying rated â€Å"M† games. C. ClincherWhether or not, in the end, video games have a large affect on a certain type of person’s mindset, something should be done to stop minors from playing games that are inappropriate for their age. 4. References Campell, Colin. â€Å"Games Do Cause Violent Behavior (But Not Much). † business week. 25/4/07. Web. 22 Nov 2009. . â€Å"Can A Video Game Lead To Murder?. † 60 Minutes, Web. 22 Nov 2009. .