Do Video Games Cause Aggression in Children?

The question of whether video games cause aggression in children is something that's been up for debate since video games were created. Of course, violent video games are a fairly recent addition to the entertainment world in the larger scope of things, so as far as time lines go, information is pretty limited. However, the immediate impact of violent video games on the behavior of children is quite easy to see.

Years ago I had a daycare. The children took a nap after lunch. Since my son was in my daycare and his father happened to be home from work, my son played video games with his dad instead of napping. The result was not impressive. Since he was with his dad I didn't really think much about what video game he was playing. It happened to be Grand Theft Auto. When nap time was over and my son went to wake a little girl up by kicking her, I began to question what he was playing.

As adults, we think that what we see on television has no impact on our behavior because we know it's only pretend. Not only do younger children not have a complete understanding of this, but they also have a completely different method of viewing behaviors in general.

Children develop behaviors by modeling what they see. As adults, we have the responsibility to decide what we expose children to. Exposing them to aggressive and inappropriate behavior actually teaches the child what behavior is appropriate. After all, if mom and dad expose you to something it must be okay, right?

Of course, as children get older they come to understand that the things they see in video games don't always apply to real life, but violent video games still have an impact on their behavior because they become desensitized to violent actions.

Consider this: If your child was never exposed to violence and then suddenly a violent act was committed in front of them, they would be shocked. A child who is repeatedly exposed to violence may not even bat an eye when a violent act is committed in front of them.

While video games probably aren't going to cause people to run out and start playing out a session of Grand Theft Auto, they will most certainly impact the child's sense of right and wrong and in the end can potentially lead to aggressive behavior. The theory that video games cause aggressive behavior in children isn't based so much on the fact that they will act out the actions of the video games (though as demonstrated by my own child, it's certainly possible), the violent video games will certainly impact their sense of right and wrong as well as their concept of what their parents find acceptable.

The mind is a tricky thing. We constantly process information and that information has an impact on our behavior. Those that are constantly exposed to violence will find violent behavior more acceptable, even if cognitively they understand that it may not be right. Our environment is the true source of what we find acceptable and history has done a fair job of proving this idea true.