Are computer games bad for children?

Thesis:

As was noted earlier, the majority of computer games produced today have violence as their

principal theme. Despite the growing concerns of parents and teachers in the past decade, it

would appear from my research that violence in computer games is becoming increasingly

realistic and explicit. We are thus faced with the familiar question: Does playing violent

computer games lead to aggressive behavior in young people? This is clearly a highly complex

issue. Research conducted in the past decade has revealed that young people who regularly play

violent computer games have a tendency to be more aggressive than those who do not. Perhaps

not surprisingly, my findings tend to support this position. (extracted from p. 116)

Walker, A. (2001). Computer games and adolescent aggression. In N. Peters (Ed.), Research into

the effects of computer games (pp. 108-124). London: St Martin’s Press.

Antithesis:

On the issue of violence, the modern media surrounds us with violence. Movies such as 'The

Matrix', television programs such as the news, newspaper reports of sports such as boxing, and

radio dramas often involve violence. It is difficult to watch TV for one evening without seeing an

explosion, car chase, death or violence. Children's programs are especially violent, as is shown

by Tom and Jerry. If young children are expected to realize that it is only a cartoon, teenagers

playing computer games can also recognize that it's only a game.

In addition, many computer games are non-violent, for example, 'The Sims' is a very popular

game of social interaction, and football playing and management games involve almost no

violence.

Smith, A. J. (2003). Synthesis. Retrieved October 20, 2008 from The Hong Kong Polytechnic

University, The English Language Centre Web site:

http://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/eap/synthesis.htm

Synthesis:

The question if violent games are bad for children has a lot of different opinions, but normally there are two opinions. One is like Walker, A. (2001) said, that researches had come to an answer that children who play violent games tend to be more violent that the ones who don`t. Nevertheless, there are the ones who say something like Smith, A. J. (2003) said, that violent games are like cartoons, movies, tv shows and other things that show violence, so like a cartoon or a movie, children can recognize that video games are not real. In my opinion, violence is not something good for children if they don`t know the difference between reality and fiction, but games are not the problem, in this case, any fiction that shows violence is bad for them, so the violence is not the problem, it`s how you deal with it.