Should Teens be Able to Buy Violent Video Games?

Video games are an undoubtedly fun form of recreation. The Science Daily (2013) even posits that they have a number of positive benefits, including helping to increase intelligence. Nevertheless, a line must be drawn when it comes to violent video games, particularly with respect to teenagers. The following discussion takes the position that teens should not be able to buy violent video games, justifying this stance using various supporting arguments from leading researchers and child psychologists.

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Discussion

Research has shown that teenagers who play violent games exhibit overly aggressive and violent tendencies (Anderson, Gentile & Buckley, 2007). Teenagers are very impressionable and can be easily influenced into adopting negative habits. Since video games are considered ‘cool,’ an impressionable teenager may think that it is cool to be violent based on the mere fact that his favorite video game contains violent characters.

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Furthermore, even for those teenagers who may not become outwardly violent, they tend to be antisocial and in extreme cases, sociopathic (Careaga, 2002). They may develop a skewed perception of interpersonal relationships and resultantly not know how to relate with other people in a healthy, non-aggressive manner.

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Teenagers who play a lot of video games have also been found to have challenges with self-control (Nannicelli & Taberham, 2014). This is as a result of the violent impulses that violent games help to stimulate. Violent video games are often fast paced and adrenalin filled, causing users to become highly strung and on edge.

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Finally, allowing teenagers to buy violent games is simply not advisable because they are highly addictive (Hardin, 2016). A teenager who is addicted to violent games may be tempted to commit crimes just to get enough money to feed their gaming addiction.

Conclusion

In sum, it is evident from the just concluded discussion that teenagers should not be able to be buy violent video games since these games can result in violent behavior, antisocial tendencies, and self control issues. They are additionally highly addictive which may influence teenagers to take up crime so as to purchase more games.

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