Write a 6 page essay on The History of Violent Video Games and their Association with Criminal Activities.Download file to see previous pages... The exposure to media has greatly increased over the ye

Write a 6 page essay on The History of Violent Video Games and their Association with Criminal Activities.

The exposure to media has greatly increased over the years and media now holds a strong authority over the lives and the thinking of the people. Following the advent and the popularity of video games there have been many debates owing to the fact that a strong association has been shown between violent games and the promotion of crime and violent activities. This paper will serve to explain the popularity and the history of the video games and it will also highlight the association between the violent video games and acts of crime. Video games have become increasingly popular and there has been a striking rise in the number of people who play video games. Anderson et al state that even children who are only 2 years tend to play video games for one hour on a daily basis. They further state that children between the ages of 8 to 13 years are engaged in playing video games for about 7.5 hours in a week. The nature of these games ranges to different types and a research has put forward the fact that the games that are bought by the children are not supervised and seen by their parents (Anderson et al 2001). The video games came into the market after the year 1970. The video games did not spark any controversies until the release of the game “Death Race 2000”. The aim of the game was to drive over bodies by driving a car. The game became a subject of debates as it was argued that the game was based on a violent idea. Following the year 1990, many other video games entered the market. The games which again led to the initiation of arguments were Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Wolfenstein 3D and Night Trap. The games were based upon violent ideas. These debates led to intervention of the Senate into the matter and Joe Lieberman who was an important member put forward a suggestion that there should be limitations placed on video games. At this stage, the video game industry intervened and formed a body in 1994 to review the violence and sexual themes of the video games. This was known as the Entertainment Software Rating Board (Greenberg 2007. Suddath 2010). This step was essential as a survey indicated that violent video games were more appealing for the children. A study which was conducted amongst students who were studying in fourth grade of their elementary school revealed that 59 percent girls and 73 percent boys preferred playing violent video games than the other kinds of games (Anderson et al 2001). In 2010, the Supreme Court took notice of a law which was passed in California in 2005 against the playing of violent video games that carried the theme of killing the opponents. The Supreme Court started considering the debate against the playing of violent video games. Experts indicated the fact that the involvement of the Supreme Court into the matter may result in the imposition of bans on certain violent video games owing to the negative impact that they would lay (Suddath 2010). The negative effects of video games have been denied by a few groups who do not believe that there is any association between violent video games and crimes. The chairman of Interactive Digital Software Association, Doug Lowenstein gave a press statement in 2000 by denying any negative effects of video games by saying, “I think the issue has been vastly overblown and overstated, often by politicians and others who don’t fully understand, frankly, this industry. There is absolutely no evidence, none, that playing a violent video game leads to aggressive behavior.” (Anderson et al 2001).