Mobile Games making Kids Violent

Insight Bureau: Majority of the world population finds mobile games interesting and a modest way to spend the leisure time from their hectic schedules. The millennial youth is considered to be the driving factor behind the growth of the gaming market. With the increase in the popularity of the online games, however, kids are seen exhibiting tendencies of aggression and violence.

In a recent dreadful incident, a class 7 student in Koraput district of Odisha was reportedly murdered by 2 of his friends following a dispute over mobile games. The deceased as well as his friends were minors.

In a similar incident about a decade ago, on December 14, 2012, a 20-year-old Adam Lanza in the United States shot and killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which included 20 children between 6-7 years old, before committing suicide. Lanza was an avid player of video games which glorified violence.

Researches have found in comparison to nonviolent or prosocial video games violent video games such as “Grand Theft Auto” and “Call of Duty” promote feelings of hostility and aggression, desensitize the player to violence, skewing their perception of what constitutes violence. And playing video games generally means playing violent games. More than 90% of games rated teen or mature have some kind of violent imagery to it and according to researchers Douglas Gentile and Craig Anderson of Iowa State University, “that violence is often portrayed as fun, justified and free from negative consequences.”

According to Gentile, “If you practice something over and over, you have that knowledge in your head. The fact that you haven’t played the piano in years doesn’t mean you can’t still sit down and play something.” He further stated, “It’s the same with violent games – you practice being vigilant for enemies, practice thinking that it’s acceptable to respond aggressively to provocation, and practice becoming desensitized to the consequences of violence.”

A survey conducted by Assocham in New Delhi, India revealed that over 82% of youngsters spend an average of 14-16 hours per week playing games on mobile phones, computers, web portals or consoles with about 7% of children qualifying as pathological video gamers by dedicating over 20 hours a week to the video games.

Gaming is taking away the time that could be spent on activities with educational benefits for the kids. Compulsive gamers exhibit signs of diminished empathy, increased hostility and conflicts at home, school and work. It could, by and large, create problems and lead to poor social skills.

Game fanatics who go to schools account for 72% with college students at 28%. This is nearly three-fourth of school going children who devote more time on gaming than they do on studying.

“Getting highly involved with video games can become addicting. Parents, thus, need to be cautious about how many hours kids play,” stated Dr. B. K. Rao, Chairman of Assocham Health Committee. He also added that children who are exposed to violence can become numb or immune due to the horror of violence, imitate the violence they witness, and show more aggressive behaviour.