An increase amount of violence in video games creates many problems in children. Children see a large amount of violence when they play video games like fighting and killing, which are the goals for winning most video games. Children learn from what they see on these games and they are learning that violence is acceptable and they do not see any problems in imitating these actions of violence and aggression. Viewing or playing such violence they see actually does cause violence in them. This trend of violence in video games causes violence in children.

Video games evoke aggression in children. A majority of video games contain some level of violence, and the purpose of many of them is to kill people to win the game. Children who play these games begin to relate the killing from the games to real life which they start to think is acceptable. For example, the popular game “Medal of Honor” portrays the relationship of violence in a video game to evoking violence in children. “Medal of Honor” is set to take place during the time of World War II at the battle of Normandy. It starts off with the United States soldiers being shipped onto the beach while being bombed and

Another problem with video game violence is that it disables children’s abilities to distinguish between what is reality and what is not. Joanne Cantor, a professor of communications at the University of Wisconsin, has done a study on this for the American Psychological Association (APA). Her study proved that over time and exposure to violence, the viewers’ emotional actions will decrease (Lavers, 2002). Cantor’s study related these reactions to children. She found that children become desensitized to the repeated exposure from video games. Once this process of desensitization begins, classical and operant conditioning reinforces the behavior that killing and fighting are not bad. In classical conditioning, a stimulus that was originally neutral gains the capacity to bring a response through an association with another stimulus that already brings a similar or related response. In operant conditioning, a response becomes more likely to occur or less likely to occur, depending on its consequences. Cantor found that operant and classical conditioning teach children to kill, fight, and to like it (2002). Video games evoke these actions in children by increasing their skills and marksmanship from using firearms in video games (2002). This was the case of what happened with Michael Carneal and what has happened with many other children. Video games eliminate children’s distinction between reality and fiction.

To further prove this example, video games like “Medal of Honor” which teach shooting skills to children can lead them to violence. Michael Carneal, a fourteen year old male, had never fired a gun before until he caused a fatal shooting. Carneal took a

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