In today’s society, it is hard to turn on the TV or go on the internet without seeing something violent. Censorship in the media has decreased immensely in the past two decades. Adolescents have access to violent video games, movies, and photos with virtually no filtration. When kids have access to this type of media, it can have detrimental effects on their psychological health.
Psychologists have studied the effect of media violence on the youth demographic since the 1970’s, and disturbing content has only increased since then. During adolescence, children often imitate what they see others do, in real life and on TV. This can prove to be very problematic if they are seeing a consistent stream of violence. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, the average child will view over 200,000 acts of violence on TV before the age of 18. This doesn’t include video games, a lot of which are more violent than anything broadcast on TV, allowing kids to have a 1st person perspective of shooting and murdering people, with increasingly life-like graphics.
As for violent video games, a direct correlation between playing and aggression has been discovered. In a study conducted by psychologists Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D., and Karen E. Dill, Ph.D., 227 college students were measured for their trait of aggressiveness, and submitted a report of their past experiences with aggressiveness, as well as their video game playing habits. After reviewing the reports, Anderson and Dill were able to conclude that the students who played video games more frequently had higher levels of aggression, and got into trouble more often. In their second study, Anderson and Dill divided a group of 210 college students. Some played a violent video game, and the rest played a non-violent video game. After the video games, the students were all exposed to a loud noise blast. Those who played violent video games became angrier in a shorter period of time than those who played non-violent video games. These studies support the hypothesis that video games have a psychological effect on a persons aggressiveness over a short period of time, and a long period of time.
One of the most common examples of violent video games having a severe, negative psychological effect on people is the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. The two gunmen, aged 17 and 18, who killed 13 classmates before taking their own lives, spent a lot of time playing violent video games on the computer. Eric Harris, the 18-year-old mastermind behind the massacre, frequently played an online video game called “Doom”, which is used to train U.S. military soldiers to make effective kills. In this game, he created his own custom levels, some of which resembled Columbine High School. After the massacre, the journals of Harris and his 17-year-old accomplice, Dylan Klebold, were examined. Experts said that after analyzing his journals, Harris, who was in court-ordered anger management therapy, claimed that he exhibited behavior associated with unconstrained aggression, among other things such as narcissism and paranoia. Klebold on the other hand, was known to cause trouble in school and at work, often verbally attacking his teachers and boss. Of course, video games are not the only factor that led to Harris and Klebold’s anger and murderous rampage, but they were a factor, and definitely did not have any positive effect on the killer’s aggressive tendencies.
In a more recent example of media influencing psychological instability, this past June, two 12-year-olds attempted to murder their friend by stabbing her 19 times, after becoming obsessed with a fictional character from the internet. The character, Slenderman, was created on an internet forum, and the stories written about him usually involve the abduction and slaying of children. Searching for Slenderman on the internet will lead to creepy photo shopped images, YouTube videos, and downloadable video games. The two 12-year-old girls, were exposed to, and became obsessed with media involving Slenderman. The girls, who claimed they wanted to commit the murder in order to “impress Slenderman”, and make him “show himself”, planned the event for months in advance.
While violent media exposure does not always lead to murder (these being extreme circumstances), there is a correlation between violent media exposure and increased aggression. If children are exposed to these things during their developmental years, they will be more prone to aggression, and become more desensitized to violence in the real world. Adding violent media to the life of someone who already has psychological issues, like Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold, can prove to be detrimental, and put innocent people in danger. Based on all of this, there should definitely be more censorship in the media, and restrictions on TV and video game violence when possible.
Sources:
http://www.apa.org/research/action/protect.aspx
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/child-adolescent-psychiatry/violence-media-what-effects-behavior
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/12-year-olds-stab-friend-slender-man/story?id=23979903
http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/03/justice/wisconsin-girl-stabbed/
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/04/video-games.aspx
I definitely see the potential correlation between exposure to more violent content and aggressive actions, but we must remember that correlation does not prove causation. Each case of violence can differ greatly, due to confounding variables. These variables include but are not limited to the manner in which one was raised, mental state, geographic location, etc. More information on factors that have the ability influence one’s aggressive habits, besides the exposure to violent content can be found here .