Have you ever played a first-person shooter game? Did it make you feel violent afterwards? It most likely did not. Many people blame video games and for the increase in violence. Violent forms of media are not at fault for the actions of people. If parents teach their children the difference between fantasy and real life, then they will not act violent because of games. Usually when a child acts violently it is because they’ve seen violence in real life. This may be in their home or out in their neighborhoods. Studies have been done to prove that video games cause violence, but none of them actually found a solid link between the two.

Since no study could prove a direct relationship between violent games and violent behaviors, then they do not cause violent behaviors among people. Many of the studies that have been done had flaws and unreliable measures of violence and aggression. In order to do a proper study, one would need to follow children around for a long period of time while they played violent games. None of the tests actually accomplished this, and because of that none of them were truly accurate. As children grow they mature. They may have acted violent when they were younger, but the reason for that is more likely to be the competition. The only correlations that have been found from studies have involved children who already show violent tendencies. Those kids were drawn to violent games because the behavior of a certain character mirrored their day to day behavior. Some children actually use violent games to get rid of negative stress.

Many children, teenagers and adults around the world use video games as a form of stress relief. Violent video games allow them to take out their stress, anger, and aggression safely. The video games do not cause them to go overboard. Some children who already have severe anger issues play violent video games. Sometimes they do act violent, but it is not due to the video game. Actually according to the FBI youth violence has declined as violent video games became more popular. They use video games to get rid of stress and anger, rather than taking it out on people. Some people that do take their anger out on others end up blaming video games for their actions.

It is not fair to blame a video game for the way one acts. Yet, so many criminals will blame a video game instead of dealing with why they committed a crime. They blame video games because it’s a lot easier for them than dealing with their emotions might be. The NRA stated that guns don’t kill people, which is completely true. Then they went on to state that video games kill people, which is completely false. Again, one cannot blame a video game for his or her actions. If one was taught the difference between fantasy and reality, then one would not have a problem with violent video games. Instead of blaming a game, people should think about how they are educated their children. Parents need to educate their children instead of blaming video games. Everyone always wants to blame, but no one really wants to try to find out the real reason behind the violence.

Lots of people play shoot-em-up games. They’re a lot of fun for the young and even the old. They do not cause someone to be violent as many people claim. The real cause of violence is what people need to focus on, not putting the blame elsewhere. Many people today feel that if they just throw blame around, even if it is truly unjust, that the problem of violence will just disappear. If they take violent video games away, people will still be violent. The violence in the world today does not come from video. It comes from families and how they raise their children.


This is a first draft for an argumentive paper I am writing. Could someone please help me out with it? Does it sound like a good paper?