Christopher Heath
Professor Clifford Stumme
ENGL 101-045
6 November 2020
Thesis
Parents should not allow their kids under the age of 10 to play violent shooter games
because it becomes problematic when kids that are influenced by these games become aggressive
towards their peers.
Annotated Bibliography
Greitemeyer, Tobias. “The Contagious Impact of Playing Violent Video Games on Aggression:
Longitudinal Evidence.” Wiley Online Library, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 13 Aug.
2019, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ab.21857. Accessed Nov 3, 2020
This study is about how violent video games influence kid’s minds, but it also has
emphasis on the effects it has on the aggression towards their friends. According to this
study there is a contagious effect of this aggression with friends of the now aggressive
kid. However, even though there is a contagious effect it seems as though the aggression
in the kid that is only friends with the aggressor does not have as much aggression. This
connects to this paper because this aggression would be caused by the desensitization of
kid’s to violent behavior. This this journal supports the idea that children are susceptible
to being influenced by the things they experience which is very relevant to my paper.
This journal is very relevant as well for the reason that it is only a little over a year old
seeing as it was made in 2019.
PJC. Adachi, T. Willoughby, et al. “Demolishing the Competition: The Longitudinal Link
Between Competitive Video Games, Competitive Gambling, and Aggression.” Journal of
Youth and Adolescence, Springer US, 18 Apr. 2014,
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-013-9952-2. Accessed Nov 3, 2020
This study focuses on the link between aggression, competitive gambling, and
competitive video games. This more specifically focuses on the effect that they have on
the mind. This is important because there is a connection between competitive games and
aggression because of how much the kids want to win their game and due to this in
violent video games it causes this same aggression you would see in determined
professional athletes even though it is just a game. Depending on how aggressive the
child gets it can be healthy to be so driven, but it can spiral out of control very quickly.
The journal explains that kids do not have full control over their actions yet which is
important to note due to their susceptibility which is very similar
Steinbeis, Nikolaus, and Harriet Over. “Enhancing Behavioral Control Increases Sharing in
Children.” Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Academic Press, 11 Mar. 2017,
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096517300760?via=ihub.
This article is mostly about an experiment that was conducted to test whether there was a
failure of behavior control and to explain why some children do not tend to share a much
as others. It highlights the fact that adults have a major part in shaping the way that kids
think and act towards others. The media and content they consume shapes much of their
actions and this means any type of media, including violent media. The violence that
children can consume shapes their reactions to different situations which can then turn
violent if that is the only way that they know how to deal with that issue.
Teng, Zhaojun, et al. “Violent Video Game Exposure and Moral Disengagement in Early
Adolescence: The Moderating Effect of Moral Identity.” Computers in Human Behavior,
Pergamon, 26 Aug. 2017,
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217304995?via=ihub. Accessed Nov
3, 2020
This article focuses on the effect of violent video games on desensitization and moral
disengagement in young kids. As explained by Zhaojun, kids, if not shown what is right
have the tendency to follow whatever example has been shown to them even if it is from
a video game. This study also focuses on the abundance of digital technology in use in
our day to day lives. Due to this, children can get access to a plethora of information of
all types and they can find video games that are violent. These video games may cause
“deviant” behaviors as stated in the study. The new concept of moral identity is
introduced to show that there are different types of moral traits that allow kids to be more
susceptible to influence. The effect of violent video games is evaluated on a case-by-case
basis which relates to my study because the argument in which kids under 10 should not
play violent video games is evaluated on a case-by-case basis as well as evaluated by
gender . This is important to use in this paper because it shows that although not all kids
are easily and negatively influenced by these games, there happens to be a large amount
of kids that internalize the violence they see in the video games.
Zheng, J., & Zhang, Q.. PRIMING EFFECT OF COMPUTER GAME VIOLENCE ON
CHILDREN'S AGGRESSION LEVELS. Social Behavior and Personality, 2016, 44(10),
1747-1760. http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2016.44.10.1747. Accessed Nov 3, 2020
This text focuses on the effect of violent video games on aggression between the two
different genders and specific personality traits. Focusing on the facts that support the
stance that violent video games is a major argument made by this paper. The paper states
that the violent video game that was tested with boys and girls and it was found that boys
found the game to be more exciting and girls tended to say that it caused more fear than
anything. Boys find much more joy in aggressive behavior than girls. Because this paper
is all about why kids under the age of 10 should not be allowed to play violent video
games this source is very relevant due to the fact it displays the tendencies of each gender
after playing violent video games. This report is on children between the ages of 9 – 12
and this paper is on children under the age of 10. This shows that the article evaluates
directly below and above the age that the paper is about. Also, this journal is written
within the last 5 years which makes the research on this topic very recent and relevant to
my paper.
Extra Sources
Dow-Edwards, Diana, et al. “Experience during Adolescence Shapes Brain Development: From
Synapses and Networks to Normal and Pathological Behavior.” Neurotoxicology and
Teratology, Pergamon, 7 Sept. 2019,
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892036219300194?via=ihub. Accessed 9
Nov. 2020
Hawkins, Nikki. “Early Responses to School Violence.” Taylor & Francis, 2008,
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J135v04n03_12. Accessed 9 Nov. 2020
