Violence among today’s youth has reached a peak. Children are constantly subjected to high-quality digital graphic violence. Parents and video game systems are partially to blame.
Do not get me wrong, I enjoy some of the games they have to offer. Games such as Metal Gear Solid, 007 Goldeye, Grand Turismo 2, NFL Blitz, Twisted Metal 2 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater are among my favorites. Whenever I have time, which is rare, I play a couple of games here and there. Most people around my age group do the same. They play games when their schedule permits it, or when there is nothing better to do.
But today’s youth, more specifically children under 12 years of age, have experienced two problems. One is the fact that children have an unending desire to do nothing but play video games.
DJ, an 11-year-old sixth grader at Slauson Junior High in Azusa, has been playing video games since he was 3 years old. By the age of 5, he was able to defeat entire games. Not just one, but a few. According to his brother Josh, on a daily basis DJ spent a few hours playing a certain game, and there were times where he would play for six hours straight.
“There would be times where my parents would yell at him just to stop playing,” said Josh, who also admits that his brother is at times lazy because of it.
Another problem is that children are exposed to violent, graphic games that depict scenes of dismembered bodies, the walking dead and the spattering of blood by gunfire, among other things.
DJ’s mom, Anita, said, “DJ used to be scared and have nightmares of one certain game that showed people getting eaten by zombies.”
In that game, Resident Evil, the player can be one of two characters whose mission is to kill all zombies and other evil forces, while saving the missing police unit. Zombies, monsters and satanic dogs are killed by handguns, shotguns and rocket launchers.
In Legacy of Kane: Soul Reaver, players can splat vampires into a bloody mess by throwing them into the wall, lighting them on fire or beating them to death with a pipe. If you have a fetish for medieval weapons, Cardinal Syn is a game where players can hack each other with axes, swords and ball-n-chains.
Through hours and hours of play, children get desensitized by constantly seeing such violence. Many people would consider these games demonic and improper material for children.
In the past couple of years, our nation has taken a turn for the worse in the plague of school shootings.
Blame has been placed on the brutality and violence of video games by different groups and people in society. I am no expert and do not know whether they encourage children to commit acts of violence. Are video games to blame? I do not know. Some experts say they are and others say they are not.
In any case, they do not do anything positive for children but lower their sense of value of life and understanding of violence. Television news programs and newspapers are filled with enough horror and violence for children to see.
Video games should be limited to games such as Tetris or Mario Kart and sports games such as Grand Turismo, NFL Blitz and MLB 2000.
The children are not the only ones to blame. The parents are the ones buying $45-$70 video games.
Junior Aaron Rodriguez said, “My cousins have, for their [Nintendo] 64s, a carrying case that has the system, controllers and games. They have a separate system in their parents’ minivan. I’m like ‘Damn.’ ”
Parents should provide alternatives like good old-fashioned books or sports. They should not rely on video games to serve as babysitters. Instead, the parents should buy their children a glove and baseball for a physical activity.
If parents are finding it difficult to occupy their children, another possibility is to enroll them in some after-school activity like karate or baseball.
Parents need to place limits on the time children can play games and screen what their young eyes absorb.
Damien Alarcon, a senior journalism major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at alarcond@ulv.edu.
