Violent games and a violent society?

Can violent video games really be the problem behind the violent society we live in today?

The truth is there is no straight forward answer behind this because no one knows the truth about what goes through the mind of a violent citizen, but however vital links in the past have been pointed at video games.

An example of a theory is the Hypodermic Syringe Model, this model suggests that the audience passively accepts the message injected into them by the mass media. In other words these types of people have a brain like a sponge and so believe that everything they see on tv is real and acceptable. The model believes that there is a direct correlation between the violent behaviour in games and anti-social behaviour in real life. I can agree with this theory because we have seen it happen time after time, however I also feel that the people who commit these crimes are mentally unstable. This is because unless you are a very small child then you should know the rights and wrongs of life, and anyone who has a inner concious would'nt feel the urge to do it.

A recent example of a criminal case is the murder of James Bulger in 1993, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were just 10 when they abducted, tortured and killed the toddler. The film 'Childs Play 3' came under scrutiny for being the influence over the two boys because they were allowed to sit and watch this film from an early age while their mother was smoking cannabis. The film contains many graphic scenes which many adults have said they were to disturbed to watch. the main character, a doll called chucky, dies after being splattered with paint and having its face pulped. very similar to what happened to James Bulger.

Violent games are becoming more popular as the days go by with their audiences getting younger, because of this it is likely that the content players are seeing becomes a second nature to them because of the amount of time they spend playing these games. It cannont be condoned that every person who plays a violent game will have a violent nature, but it does seem very coincidental that as the games market rises so does the levels of violence.