Many video game companies have been criticized for their content that slowly erodes children’s sensitivity and empathy by turning violence and cruelty into an inconsequential game.
More than 90% of American children play video games and over 90% of games rated E10+ or over have violent content, according to an Oct. 20, 2018 Healthline article. Children ages eight-18 spend an average of 110 minutes per day playing video games, according to the same article.
Some of the most popular video games are violent, first-person shooter games. These games have been around since the early days of video games, but over the years they’ve drastically changed.
The original first-person shooter game, Maze War, was created in 1973 and looks nothing like present-day shooter games, according to a June 12, 2012 Engadget article. The simple graphics didn’t allow for the excessive gore children are exposed to in video games today.
Many modern video game companies have developed their games to be as realistic as possible. Instead of shooting rendered and simple avatars, kids are shooting and blowing up extremely realistic human-like characters.
Kids are impressionable and spending hours killing fake people can have significant effects on their psyche.
Playing violent video games can increase aggressive thoughts, behaviors and feelings, according to a 2017 study conducted by the American Psychological Association Task on Violent Media.
The study also showed kids who played violent video games had decreased social skills, such as willingness to help others and show empathy. The longer children played the video games, the worse their effects got.
Desensitizing children to violence in America is only good for one entity: the military-industrial complex.
The U.S. military regularly funds the creation of violent video games and uses them to prepare soldiers for the reality of war, according to a January 2009 ResearchGate article.
ResearchGate is a European commercial network for scientists and researchers to share research and materials, according to its website.
America’s Army, a realistic first-person shooter game, received $12 million of funding from the U.S. Army and was released on July 4, 2002, according to the same ResearchGate article.
The game was available for free download on the Department of Defense America’s Army website and over 1.5 million people downloaded the game within six months of its release.
The game is so realistic the screen moves with the avatar’s breathing during combat and it's one of the first shooter games that allowed for a 3D experience of a combat zone. It was essentially a massive interactive recruitment campaign.
The success of America’s Army prompted the military to continue funding more violent video games including Full Spectrum Warrior, a suburban-set game where shooters gun down Middle Eastern “terrorists,” according to the same ResearchGate article.
Children learn from active participation and in video games, they’re actively learning to kill through embodying the shooter.
Violent video games teach children lessons about heroism, jingoism and conflict resolution, but none of these lessons are positive, according to an Aug. 14, 2019 Conversation article.
Jingoism is extreme chauvinism or nationalism marked especially by a belligerent foreign policy, according to Merriam-Webster.
American children are being taught that taking a human life is a game and conflict resolution isn’t an option.
Violent video games are used as a tool by the military to desensitize and recruit impressionable kids who’ve been programmed to view killing as the best, most heroic option.
Children deserve to grow up surrounded by compassion and conversation, not violent, soul-sucking military propaganda. Violence in video games needs to be censored from children, not marketed to them.
