Does Video Game Violence Affect Children?

Does Video Game Violence Affect Children? :


This project shows if video game violence affects children. Many children between the ages of eight years old and ten years old will be observed before, during and after playing violent video games. Looking for violent behavior before, during and after playing violent video games is the whole experiment. The conclusion is that most children have no problems after playing the violent videogames.


I think that most of the children will be unaffected by playing violent games. Most children have the ability to tell the difference between reality and a game, so they should act normally. But the others may have their behavior affected because of the lack of telling the difference between realities and pretend.


For my experiment I used a Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Sony PlayStation and PC CD-ROM. The games I used were Mortal Kombat Trilogy (on Nintendo 64), Mortal Kombat II (on Super Nintendo), Mortal Kombat (on Sega Genesis), Killer Instinct Gold (on Nintendo 64), Power Rangers (on Sega Genesis), Tomb Raider (on PC CD-ROM) and Bishouju Senshi Sayla Moon Supers (on Japanese PlayStation).


The first step I used was gathering a group of children ages 8-10 years old (5 girls and 5 boys), got their parents permission, and made sure they had no idea there was an experiment taking place. The second step I took was observing the children play together before being exposed to violent video games. I looked for any sign of violent behavior. What I consider violent behavior is punching, kicking, slapping (even if no contact is made), and cussing. After watching them I discovered that none of them showed any signs of violent behavior. The third step was letting them play the video games. I had problems getting the five girls to play the games. They refused unless I let them play Sailor Moon first. After that was settled I observed their behavior and I noticed twitching fingers, eyebrows, and toes. Fourth I let them play together again and observed their behavior for any signs of violence. Two days after they went home I called their parents and asked if there has been any change in their child's behavior.


Throughout most of the experiment the children have had no bad behavioral problems until the end of my experiment. In the last phase of my experiment two of the boys had exhibited violent behavior which was them pretending to fight. Also in the last phase of my experiment two of the girls seemed very disgusted after viewing fatalities from Mortal Kombat Trilogy. Also when I called their houses one of the children's parents notified me of unusually violent behavior the day before.


The results prove my hypothesis to be correct. Most of the children had no changes but some of them did. I think that if people explain to their children and teach them the difference between reality and a game there would be no problems with behavior after playing violent video games. Also I agree with the rating system used to regulate gaming, because some children are not ready to watch someone's head get ripped off (even if the characters aren't real) at a young age. A mistake I had made was not getting written permission for the use of their children in my experiment even though I did get verbal.


Mind at Play : The Psychology of Video Games

Elizabeth F. Loftus

Youth Violence

Michael D. Biskup

Fist, Stick, Knife, Gun

Geofferey, Canada

Game Players magazine

Game Fan magazine

Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine

PC Gamer magazine : Does Video Game Violence Affect Children?

Bill's Child Psychology Net Site

Doug's page O' Video Game Violence


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