Andy Hilzinger

Mrs. Cramer

Comp Pd. 8

7 December 2018

Violent Media: The Secret Mass Murderer

Modern media has been shown to turn children into psychopaths. 1 A widely debated topic is

whether or not children are influenced by modern media to become more violent in nature. Since

the dawn of modern media, this has been a topic widely discussed throughout households and in

public, but why? There is an increasing concern with violent media targeted at children of

influential age, and rightfully so. Modern media has absolutely proven to make children 2 more

violent through such content as video games and movies.

Firstly, modern video games show violent content that leads to children learning and

repeating these actions. Firstly, modern video games desensitize children to violent actions

(Violent Video Games, GALE 16). The more that children see violent actions portrayed in games

such as, “Grand Theft Auto V” the more that they are likely to be desensitized to these actions.

While these actions may be obviously incorrect to someone with a fully developed mind,

children are not fully developed, and can’t always tell the difference between right and wrong.

Because of their minds being fully undeveloped, they don’t realize the complete impact of their

actions, and as such are desensitized to the impact of their actions in the bigger picture. In

addition to modern video games causing children to be desensitized, they can cause children to

1
Pathos – I talk about children being turned into psychopaths to induce fear in my audience. This
is in the hopes that they’ll be more listening to understand how to prevent this.
2
Synecdoche – I used the term children in general, but I only mean the ones influenced by video
games. This causes it to seem like a more widespread issue than it is.
become more angry, leading to violence (Video Games and Violence, GALE 7). Children, when

playing video games, have been shown to actively become involved and immersed in the

platform. When this happens, they tend to lose feel for the world around them. In a sense,

children have a one-track mind when it comes to video games, causing them to actively forget all

else. Because of this, children will likely become increasingly angry. They will put themselves in

the mindset of the character that they play as, as they play. These characters are often portrayed

as angry, vengeful, dangerous, or even sociopathic. As these children get actively involved in

playing video games, and identify themselves with the protagonist, it can be increasingly hard for

them to suppress violent actions that their protagonist is likely to commit. Actions related to this

can stem from simple bullying and name-calling, to physical violence. This bullying and

aggression can be related directly to discipline in school, and sociopathic tendencies later in life.

In addition, while violent video games can cause aggression in young children, movies can

have an even greater negative influence on children. It has been shown that children who watch

horror movies are shown to be moodier and more likely to show agitation against their peers.

Part of the problem is that when children see horror movies, they can get less sleep than they

normally would. When children have less sleep, they are more likely to act out in aggression.

We’ve all been there, we’ve had days with little sleep and we become irritable 3, that’s exactly

what happens with young children who lose sleep to the perils of horror movies. Not only can

children lose sleep causing them to be more agitated, but they can be misled into believing that

these actions are not as severe as they may seem. Because movies are all fictional, children never

see consequences for these violent acts; they come to believe that performing these actions are

3
Ethos – I established myself as someone who understands how these children feel. This makes
me a more credible author because I relate on a personal level to the children
okay. It can be hard for them to draw the line between fantasy and reality and they find trouble

realizing that these violent actions are so bad (Historic U.S. Events 2). This mentality can even

be brought into adulthood with them, without proper intervention. Hand in hand with this, it has

been proven that children who watch violent movies are shown to have less social skills in

school, and find it more difficult to develop long lasting friendships. This goes hand in hand with

not being able to draw the line between fantasy and reality. Children are subject to repeat the

things that they see in these violent movies, and upon doing that will likely remove themselves

unintentionally from friendships. Nobody wants to be friends with someone who is violent!

These children often find that movies also take up most of their time, occupying them from

forming and strengthening new friendships. All in all, the evidence stacks up against violent

movies and video games, yet there are still some skeptics who argue that these platforms do not

make children violent.

One major argument in favor of children playing violent video games is that video games are

a great stress-relief source for children. Parents say that their children can work out their anger in

a healthy way by playing video games that allow them to act out violent actions, without really

putting anyone at risk. While this is all well and good at first, this can soon lead into a downward

spiral throughout adulthood as these people then search for the same stress relief. According to

Forbes.com, there have been cases of children repeating violent actions they’ve seen from Grand

Theft Auto V. This occurs when children become bored of the game that they play, and they

search for the same stimulation that the video games gave them in the first place. While video

games can release stress in the short term, the long term effects of playing violent video games

can cause more stress and pressure than there ever was to begin with.
 Another argument used by people that disagree with the correlation between modern media

and violence, is that children recognize that violent movies are fictional, and know better than to

repeat them. The problem with this argument, is that when children are young, they have trouble

differentiating between what is real and what is not. When children are young, they have trouble

distinguishing between what is okay to do, and what is not. With violent movies glorifying

violent and gory actions, the line between fantasy and reality becomes even more blurred. This

issue leaks into adulthood with children, without intervention. Because of this blurred line of

fantasy and reality, there have been many cases of children growing into violent adults (UPI

Newstrack 2). Many of these cases stem back to the presence of violent video games, or movies

in these people’s early childhood. There are currently no limitations on what children can view,

aside from what each individual parent sets for their household. The main way to combat this

problem is for each parent to track what their children is watching. It is important to fix this

problem by always keeping a watchful eye out for what children are being influence by on the

daily. Not only is this the case for movies, this is also the case for video games. Video games can

even mostly be the main culprit in this issue. The violence in video games seems to spiral into

darker and darker corners with each new release. Only parents can prevent this epidemic.

Modern media has absolutely proven to make children more violent including content

such as video games, and movies. Violent media is harmful because the undeveloped mind of

each child cannot handle the intensity that these media platforms has to offer. What stems from

this is the loss of valuable social connections, and violent actions taken out on peers by these

children. In order to prevent children from committing these violent actions, we need to work to

control children’s programming until they are old enough to determine the difference between
fantasy and reality, in order to keep them on the right path without being influenced by violent

media.
 Works Cited

"Man allegedly acts out violent movies." UPI NewsTrack, 25 Jan. 2008. Research in Context,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A173856522/MSIC?u=pl1949&sid=MSIC&xid=f2fa7475.
Accessed 21 Sept. 2018.

"Movie Studios Limit Marketing of Violent Films to Children, September 26, 2000." Historic
U.S. Events, Gale, 2004. Research in Context,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ2359030003/MSIC?u=pl1949&sid=MSIC&xid=9e785bb7
. Accessed 18 Sept. 2018.

"Video Games and Violence." Gale Student Resources in Context, Gale, 2018. Research in
Context,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ2181500303/MSIC?u=pl1949&sid=MSIC&xid=0909de07
. Accessed 18 Sept. 2018.

"Violent Video Games." Research in Context, Gale, 2018. Research in Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/QJEURC425614702/MSIC?u=pl1949&sid=MSIC&xid=aa5a
a1f3. Accessed 18 Sept. 2018.