In the current digital era, what we lack is the conscience. Since childhood, kids get to see lots of negative and unethical things. In fact, in several cases, they are forced to engage in sports that teach them wrong things in an attractive way.
Video games top the chart for kids’ favorite pastime, but are they safe to play? No. Constantly engaging in such games makes a person more aggressive and depressed.
Be it the famous car racing video games or any other games on Playstation and Xbox, these games teach unethical and illegal things more than letting the user learn some useful life lessons.
What Do Adventurous Video Games Teach?
Frankly, nothing! Such games only encourage the users to take part in illegal activities including rash driving or hit and run. In real life, every person should obey the law of the land irrespective of wherever he or she resides. Contrarily to what we see in those adventurous car races, a driver indulging in any hit and run should surrender himself/herself before the law at the earliest. There are several other examples too how video games make a person more aggressive than ever.
The recent study on video games suggests that 90% of the children play Video games in the US. The figure goes higher to around 97% when the age of children is within the range of 12 to 17. Some of these violent games include Manhunt, Gears of War, Jail Break and others. Even in simpler video games like Pokemon Go and Ben 10, some elements of violence are still there.
Game For Change: A Nice Initiative
The “Games for Change” a not-for-profit organization that hosts the annual games for change festival is spearheading the campaign for popularizing social games among children and kids. The site has now more than 1.3 million user base worldwide.
These games aim at imparting human values and humanitarian efforts rather than promoting the typical “bullet for bullet” – a violent concept surrounding the world of 3D adventurous games.
This Game for Change organisation now offers more than 130+ useful social games for children and adults on its website. The figure is likely to go up in the coming days. We need such organizations to come forward worldwide supporting the cause of promoting good behavior in children by inculcating them good values through life-enriching video games.
When Video Games Make a Person Murderer
A person doesn’t become a killer at once. It depends upon his mental and psychological conditions and the environment he/she lives in. The recent shootout incident in Munich last year made an interesting collaboration between violent video games and the perpetrators who killed 9 innocent people for no reasons at all!
The assailant, an 18-year-old man was the first time offender and a big fan of the video games that involve mass shooting. Such video games do inflict negative impacts in the minds of the users. The American Psychological Association admitted to the fact that violent video games encourage aggressive behavior and makes gamers more antisocial and less empathic.
Towards a New Beginning
#1) Creation of new video games where gamers will save people, and not kill them.
#2) Video games should be informative and insightful in nature.
#3) Parents should unitedly boycott any video game that promote violence and aggression.
#4) Children should play outdoor games more than video games.
#5) Parents should keep a close look at how many hours children indulging video games. Not more than 2 hours a day should be allowed.