The Hidden Side to Gaming

Violent video games have had no significant increase in a modern day child’s aggression. Study after study with conclusive evidence will merely result in disproving violent behavior in children due to exposure to violent games. In fact, it may even be that violent video games can be good for children.

These games can very likely cause a child to take out aggression in the game rather than in real life. This outcome seems a bit safer than restricting your child from these helpful filters, eventually causing all of their aggression and stress to build up inside them until it erupts all at once in a rain of blind fury and violence on a real person or thing. It’s much healthier for a child to be able to release stress and aggression in a fictional world rather than bottle up their emotions until they finally blow in a horrific display of violence and anger in reality.

Still not convinced? Think about this for a second. Think about how all of the pressure of school, homework, chores, and parents just piled on top of you when you were a kid. If you’re just like any other human, you were probably extremely irritable with all of this stress crammed into your head. Now imagine there was a simple, mind-numbing stress reliever where you could just pour out all of your anger and stress and just take a small break from everyday chaos. Feels good, doesn’t it?

Other than relieving children of aggression and stress, video games can teach children valuable skills that can be applied to real life. Video games can, as you probably have heard, improve eye-hand coordination. They can do much more than that. Video games can often sharpen a child’s reflexes and improve a child’s critical thinking in a challenging situation. Children can even gain some more important skills that may be used later in life like advanced problem solving.

So, let’s recap. Violent video games don’t spike aggression in children, but, instead, filter out aggression in a safe way. Video games are great for relieving stress. Video games teach children important life skills. What’s not to like about gaming? What’s there to be skeptical about? Sure children can become lazy playing video games all day, but that’s up to the parents to set boundaries for their children. Violent video games have a hidden side to them.