Video games are a very popular means of entertainment among adolescents today.

They offer a much needed, long sought after, cure for Boredom. However, there are many concerns surrounding video games. The frontrunner among these concerns is video game violence. This is a very real and pertinent issue because the teens that are b

When video games were first introduced in the 1970’s they became a preferred childhood activity for leisure (Cesarone 31). Parents “responded with concern about the possible ill effects of the games on children” (Cesarone 31). However, “early research on these effects was inconclusive” (Cesarone 31). Today, research is much more productive and exact. Games being put out today, because of their extremely gory and violent nature, have triggered many more advancements in how thorough the effects on the users are examined. Now that we have a good idea of what video game violence is, we’ll take a look at some of the effects that video games have on the user’s family life.

5. Do not put video game set in children’s rooms where they can shut the door and isolate themselves.

If parents were to abide by these tips, they would resolve many of the problems that occur as a result of video games.

Another aspect of family life that is affected is the education of the user. In a study of 225 college-aged students, those who had a history of playing video games as a teenager scored lower marks in school than their non-game playing peers (Ko 47). The main cause of these lower marks in school is from the fact that they will substitute homework time for game playing time (Ko 47). Therefore, because of the lower marks, the parents become upset and have to discipline the user; the parents’ troubles are increased along with household tension. Dr. David Walsh, PhD, lays out a few tips on the website for the Institute for Media and the Family for parents to follow in order that there will be less stress involved when dealing with their children about video games. They are:

In order to draw accurate conclusions on this issue, we must first define and explain what video game violence is. Violence, in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, is defined as “rough treatment; [or] use of physical force on others, esp. to hurt or harm them”(1175). From this we can logically draw a definition of violence in video games as being any game that has the user (in the game) utilizing physical force on others in order to hurt, harm, or kill them. “Nearly a third of the top 100 top-console games for the first quarter 1999 had at least some sort of violent content” as described before (Quittner 50). What is even more startling is that an estimated “sixty-two percent of North American homes have video game equipment” (Ko 47). With this high of a percentage of homes having video game equipment, and nearly 33 of the top 100 games having violent content, it is, therefore, easy to see how prevalent these games are in America’s modern culture.

4. Require that homework and jobs must be done first; use video game playing time as a reward.

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