Do you think violent video games make CHILDREN more violent?

Kids, in my experience, tend to imitate things they see in games. That's not to say it makes them violent, but they might fight each other after playing a fighting game in the same way they might go snowboarding after playing SSX or play football after playing Madden.

Vidro games are disfusting I wuld never lpay one

depends on the kid but mostly yes.

Not "kill everyone around them" violent, but a tendency to solve problems with violence.

No. Kids are smarter about these sorts of things than some adults give them credit for. Not that I'd want young children playing M-rated games, but not because they're going to turn into violent offenders. If the opposite were true, then we'd be seeing an increase in violence by young people as video gaming has become more prevalent over the last thirty years. The opposite has been the case. I've heard some make the argument that video games actually provide an outlet for aggressive feelings. I'm not sure I'm completely convinced by that, but I think it's a conclusion better supported by the data at hand.

@ExportA said:

Kids, in my experience, tend to imitate things they see in games. That's not to say it makes them violent, but they might fight each other after playing a fighting game in the same way they might go snowboarding after playing SSX or play football after playing Madden.

Kids are far smarter then that. Otherwise one would have to ban books and the tv aswell. Just to make sure. And honestly what's up with people claiming kids would be more aggressiv and violent nowadays. It's simply not true. Just take a look back at the 19th, early 20th century. People, including kids were much more violent back then and had far less qualms about killing. Was that caused by games?

Short answer: yes

Longer answer: Children will mimic acts that they deem cool. This includes acts in video games. However this doesn't necessarily make them more violent (if you mimic a shotgun reloading animation and shoot someone does that make you violent?) nor is it long term behaviour. Consider that generations of children have played cops and robber (or other variants like cowboys and indians) and guns are extremely pervasive in popular (kids) culture. Video games aren't unique apart from the level of biological damage (cartoon show somebody get shot they get stunned, video game they fall over dead with blood). Video games may give kids behaviour to re enact but I don't think that make kids more violent/aggressive, especially long term.

Check the Bobo experiment to see how impressionable kids are:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobo_doll_experiment

the answer is between your two choices.

No, society in general makes kids violent.

Yes, this one time this mother took away her son's games and he killed her and try to get rid of her body by putting it in the stove. True story.

we're a violent species anyway aren't we? That probably doesn't help

It's mostly bullshit to me, and when it happens, i have heard about a lot of parents forbidding their kid to play video games. When something like a kid doing something inspired from a video game, it's in extremely rare cases. One in a million.

No, at least not more than TV and movies do.

The one negative emotion exclusive to excessive video gamery is frustration, but that comes with Super Mario Brothers as easily as God of War 3.

@Gamer_152 said:

There are a lot of different factors which I think determine whether playing video games will make a kid more violent but I believe it's something that absolutely can happen. Why do you think they put age ratings on violent games?

No, they do that because some soccer moms in America are bored and choose to spend their time as "activists" getting games frivolously labeled to stop all the "violence" caused by games that only started happening in schools and among children since games were invented...

I don't believe so, but in my families case NOT playing video games can make at least my step-son violent. I have an 13 year-old stepson that is a complete jerk off. He obsesses about video games constantly and has exhibited some rather bizarre behaviors when I do let him play, like pissing his pants on my new couch so that he wouldn't have to pause the game to go to the bathroom. There is a long list of things that made me and my wife decide that video games aren't the best thing for him so he is insanely limited in the time he can play. The problem is that I've been gaming my entire life and I have a 6 year-old son that I love to share this experience with. He has his own 3DS, and I let him play my 360 and ps3 whenever he wants. This bothers my step-son and he will lash out physically destroying personal items and he starts fights with my son. It always ends the same way, my 6 yo son, who's 4 1/2 ft. tall 70 lbs. kicks the crap out of my 13 yo step-son who is 4 3/4 ft tall and 80 lbs. You'd think he'd learn his lesson but he doesn't, and his behavior gives me all the more incentive to not let him play video games. It's pretty fucked up.