Introduction
Many people are of the opinion that computer gaming is harmless fun for their children, this is due to minor research being undertaken in past years.Computer games have now been a household item for the past twenty five years. The black and white block graphics of the tennis game Pong first made their way onto people’s television sets in the mid-1970s and since then the fad for these games has turned into an industry worth almost $6½ billion in the USA alone in 2001 (IDSA, 2002).
As technology has grown and computer gaming has become more advance in recent years, more and more young children are taking part in computer gaming. Gamestudies.org (2003) states these games have become increasingly popular in the past 20 to 25 years, especially among young people. As more and more children take part in this activity the interest on the effects it is having has also increased as well. Many people particularly parents are worrying about the effects computer games are having on their children.
As computer gaming has largely increased, the effects computer games are having on the brain is just one of the research areas that has also increased. Some people believe that violent or aggressive computer games have an effect on young children today. Further research has suggested that exposure to violent video games may increase angry and hostile feelings while interacting with peers, teachers, and adults (Anderson et. al.)
However it has been said that violent video game exposure may decrease compassionate feelings for others with whom they interact (Anderson, et al). In addition to this the National Television Violence Study (1996) determined that 73 percent of violent video games reward violence as an effective way to handle conflict. Studies conducted by Albert Bandura and Len Berkowitz have found that rewarding violent behaviour is conducive to learning. As a result, players who are continually rewarded for violent responses may experience an increase in their aggressive behavior and/or their perception of aggressive behavior (Bandura, 1977; Berkowitz, 1993).
As technology has grown over the years, these computer games have become more and more sophisticated and because of this players are required to pay constant attention to these games as to watching television or a film. With this happening, has come concerns about the amount of time children are spending on playing these games and whether the time spent is at the expense of other activities and having detrimental effects on children such as addiction.
It has been suggested that ‘computer game addiction’ is like any other behavioural addiction, in that it
consists of compulsive behavioural involvement, a lack of interest in other activities, association mainly with
other addicts, and physical and mental symptoms when attempting to stop the behaviour – e.g. the ‘shakes’(Soper and Millar, 1983). Maybe because of the lack of instructions on usage of games and also the lack of diagnostic analysis on computer game addiction is probably the reason for the lack of research in this area.
Lady Greenfield a leading neuroscientist told the Guardian: "To the best of my knowledge, no serious research work had been done anywhere on the impact of repeated use of computers on the development of the brain, yet I know there is huge interest in the subject among parents. It is a big change in society that we should try to understand. Think of the money we will be spending on other issues, yet we are taking this big risk with children's lives. It is something parents would like to know more about. Jamieson. A (2009).
She also stated "The environment of children has been changed in an unprecedented way in the past 10 years and we need to know whether it is affecting them." Jamieson. A (2009). This report will investigate if the effects of computer games on young children are of a negative nature and do people need to take action on these effects.
In this paper the researcher will be studying multiple areas of computer gaming effects to answer the Hypothesis:
Computer games have a harmful effect on young children.
The hypothesis will be investigated in multiple areas and the aims of the research will be:
Lady Greenfield a leading neuroscientist told the Guardian: "To the best of my knowledge, no serious research work had been done anywhere on the impact of repeated use of computers on the development of the brain, yet I know there is huge interest in the subject among parents. It is a big change in society that we should try to understand. Think of the money we will be spending on other issues, yet we are taking this big risk with children's lives. It is something parents would like to know more about. Jamieson. A (2009).
She also stated "The environment of children has been changed in an unprecedented way in the past 10 years and we need to know whether it is affecting them." Jamieson. A (2009). This report will investigate if the effects of computer games on young children are of a negative nature and do people need to take action on these effects.
In this paper the researcher will be studying multiple areas of computer gaming effects to answer the Hypothesis:
Computer games have a harmful effect on young children.
The hypothesis will be investigated in multiple areas and the aims of the research will be:
- To find out the public's views on computer gaming, and from the results to see if the majority of people find that computer gaming is a positive or negative activity.
- To find any harmful effects computer gaming could have on young children today.
- To find out if computer games can have positive effect on young children.
- To examine the effects computer games are having on young children and if there can be action taken to help these effects.
Using quantitative research methods within this paper, the researcher is going to evaluate the aims of this report and give an answer to the hypothesis.
