Do Video Games Really Cause Bad Behavior in Children?

 

 In many forums, the question of whether video games cause bad behaviour in children is prominent and is staple. Many say no, many say yes. Many say it depends. Yes, there are many factors that should be considered when answering the question. These factors are needed to be able to come up with answers and in defending such answer.

 

 

Allow me to give you my own answer to the question. This is my own simple way of joining in this relevant debate.

 

 

Tender Age

 

 

First, we have to put into consideration the age of our subjects, children. Age is a great factor especially considering being influenced. Let us not forget that children are in the tender years. Their minds, hearts and personalities are still very soft and are yet to be moulded. They are blank canvasses which receive anything that comes and adopt them. They should be guarded and guided. This is the responsibility of the parents. Too much time, attention and effort to playing video games can take away from more important activities especially studying and developing a strong body and morally upright personality. This is another aspect which needs to be looked into by parents.

 

 

Parental Guidance Overall

 

 

It is the duty of the parents to raise their children. One big part of that is monitoring and screening their activities from playing outside, to the TV shows they watch and to the video games they play. And a very big part of this is the one mentioned last, video games.

 

 

Parental Guidance in Gaming

 

 

Parents should do their duty of guiding their children to become good persons. With this responsibility comes a corresponding power. They can enforce rules on their children. They have the right to monitor what their children are doing. They are warranted to search and investigate them. They are vested with the authority to put in place rules that will ensure that inappropriate materials do not enter the house. Further, they can extend their powers outside this jurisdiction. They can track down what their children are doing outside the house. They should use this to prevent bad influence from video games to get into their children’s system.

 

 

Children’s Freewill and Intellect

 

 

Yes, parents have the right and responsibility of knowing what their children are doing even outside the house. They need to invoke this right because the kids can develop some curiosity of about the very violent video games which are banned in the house. They have intellect and freewill. The first causes them to be curious and the second enables them to act on this curiosity. Again, parents should come in. Even without them suspecting or being sure that their children are playing violent video games and influenced to develop violent tendencies, they should continually educate their children about this matter. They have to be creative and loving in finding ways to tell their children in the most effective way that they can.

 

 

The Gaming Industry and Society

 

 

Aside from the parents, the society and the gaming industry also has a certain degree of responsibility to children. The video game business sector should be conscientious enough in producing games and distributing them to the public. There are already policies regarding this legislated by the government. The video game sector should abide by the implementing rules and regulations of these laws. Also, the society should be vigilant in reporting violations that may be committed by the games business and in helping guard children outside their homes regarding the sale and play of violent video games.

 

 

My Conclusion

 

 

Video games can really cause bad behaviour in children. Although not generally, a few news reports and studies show this. Not all violent video games can cause bad behaviour and not all children who play violent games on arcades and personal and family computers display untoward tendencies. Still, this does not take away the fact that these games really do have the ability to stimulate violent actions in these younger players.

 

 

Children are still in the formative years of life. They are very susceptible to outside influences. Their minds and personality is yet to be formed and negative influence from video games can creep in and may cause them to develop the tendency to act in bad ways. Parents have the great responsibility to prevent this from happening to their children.

 

Does Everything Our Parents Teach Us Help In Life?

 

“Everything I know I learned from my parents.” This could be what many of us will say during specific times. However, there are also some of us who do not appreciate what their parents are doing. There are also parents who appear to do things which are destructive to their children. But whatever the case may be, parents are always a source of learning. They teach their children in ways which are direct or indirect.

The issue is whether parents are always right. The question is whether everything they teach their children help them in life.

Mothers Know Best

As children, we were young and do not know what to do. We did not know anything, yet. Our parents were our guide. As we grew older to become youngsters or even young adults, we seek the opinion or guidance of our parents in matters concerning our lives. Most of the time, we approach our mother.

Even males approach their mother. However, they do not directly ask the advice of their mother. They just tell them about what is going on and what they plan to do. Then, the mother just gives her support, especially to the ones to which she agrees. She gives advice but not really in the form of one. Just like how her son approached her, she will also just tell what she experienced or learned in the past.

The reason why mothers know best is that they are ahead in experience, a full generation of life learnings. Second, and in connection with the first, they only want what is best for their children. Experience and love are first set of reasons why everything our parents teach us help in life.

Parents Only Want What’s Best

No parent would want their children to fall into failure. Many of them even become martyrs in their own right just to provide for their offsprings. There is this one photo in the social media where a university student who just graduated, wearing a toga, posed with his father who just came from the farm with bare foot having mud on them. The graduate put the caption which says something like, “My father is proud of me, but I am more proud of him.”

The father sent his son to college by toiling at the farm between the sun and the mud, every day. This parent may not have been able to teach his son how to live in the city but he was able to teach him how to be responsible, to work, to provide and to love. Also, he was not able to teach his son the lessons he learned at university but he was the one who sent him to it.

No Perfect Parent

But not all of us appreciate what are parents do. There are others who acknowledge that they do not like everything about their parents. But still, it does not take away the fact that our parents love us, care about us and want to please us. There are times when we do not like what are parents do for us. There are also certain characteristics of our parents that we just do not like. Again, whatever they or we do, they are still ahead of us, has more experience and wisdom, and know and want what is best for us.

We may not like everything about them but this does not mean that we will no longer follow the good examples they show, believe in the good principles that they lived with and use these to help us in life. We cannot do that. We cannot condemn our parents because we do not like a few aspects of their personality. There is so much to lose if we do that. They have thought us so many very good things that we need in making our lives better. What we can do is to learning further and this included learning from what we do not like in them. We should turn this into a positive thing in our lives.

Learning from Mistakes

To every rule, there is an exception. That is the general rule. The same applies to parents. Not all parents are perfectly good. There are also those who are irresponsible. The children of these parents still cannot say that they cannot learn anything from them. Their situation should teach them what they should not do and what they should do.

Summing Up Everything

Yes, everything our parents teach us help in life. Parents know what is best because they came before us and want only what is best for us because they love us. They are ahead of us in experience and wisdom which makes them qualified teachers in life however we surpass their educational attainment. We appreciate our parents in general but there are also times which disagree with them or what they do. They may also have aspects in their personality that we may not like. There are also parents who are irresponsible. Still in all these latter cases, children can learn. These teach them what mistakes to avoid and how to avoid them. As we grow and mature, we learn more about life. All the good things and the few shortcomings of our parents will guide us. It is up to us to learn from them and use them to help us in life.