5th blog for social psy: ratings for video games
In a few more days, a rating system will be implemented to guide parents on deciding which video games are suitable for their children. Two classifications will be used: Age Advisory (for ages 16 and above) for games with implied sexual activity and moderate violence; & Mature 18 (M18) for older gamers for games that comprise nudity and realistic violence. Games that illustrate rape, glamorised drug use, language offensive to religion, and sadistic violence continue to be banned. Stickers will be pasted on rated games to caution buyers and parents while retailers have to check a buyer’s age before the sale of M18 games. Those who break the rules will be fined up to $40k and/or jailed up to 6 mths. Retailers support this system as they are now clearer on the types of games that can be imported, without fear of being banned after bringing it in.
Even though ratings are now in place, parents should not let down their guard and supervision as game producers offer increasingly mature thrills. Parents usually worry that their children will become addicted to the computer while trying to increase their never-ending game levels. Homework and other activities might be neglected while social skills might weaken. Another major concern is that violence in video games heightens the risk of desensitisation. Tolerance for violence may increase and empathy for others may decrease, although this affects attitudes more than overt behaviours.
In social psychology, aggression is defined as behaviour that aims to hurt someone physically or psychologically. Violence is a form of aggression that causes extreme injury. When engaging in interactive video games, players need to make quick decisions to act aggressively. According to the social learning theory, people learn many types of responses, including aggressive behaviours, based on the observation of how the behaviours are performed and the types of rewards or punishments for such reactions. As such, the contentment of seeing an enemy destroyed might reinforce the use of aggression. Playing such games also seems to elicit aggressive thoughts and emotions, influencing later behaviours. When young boys were assigned to play either an aggressive martial arts game or a nonaggressive and yet similarly arousing racing game, boys who played the martial arts game were more likely to display physical aggression towards toys and greater verbal aggression towards other children compared to those who played the racing game. Other researchers argue that the violence in video games is not very realistic as the characters are animated. Furthermore, such games might provide safe and harmless outlets for aggressive impulses.
Violent pornography refers to sexually explicit material that portrays aggressive and hostile sexual activity. Like violence in video games, evidence is insufficient to conclude whether pornography increases aggression or rape. Researchers believe that people who would be negatively affected by watching violent pornography or engaging in such acts in video games are the ones already predisposed to do so and such games that include rape may not have an effect on most people.
It is in good faith that the government is rating video games so that gamers are only exposed to certain games when they are mature enough and that such acts as drug use, religiously offensive coarse language and sadistic violence are banned to prevent gamers from copying or imitating such behaviours. However, reactance theory postulates that banning or censoring a product may backfire as people crave things that are restricted. Nevertheless, I feel that it is better to be safe than sorry by controlling content in video games that are too extreme so that potential effects on certain people could be reduced as less people would have access to such material. Additionally, more could be done in tandem to prevent aggression by teaching children from young the alternative ways of communication like talking about problems and focus on solving them and to gain empathy by thinking from another’s viewpoint.
Read one of the articles on the rating system for video games: "Ratings for new video games by end April"
Even though ratings are now in place, parents should not let down their guard and supervision as game producers offer increasingly mature thrills. Parents usually worry that their children will become addicted to the computer while trying to increase their never-ending game levels. Homework and other activities might be neglected while social skills might weaken. Another major concern is that violence in video games heightens the risk of desensitisation. Tolerance for violence may increase and empathy for others may decrease, although this affects attitudes more than overt behaviours.
In social psychology, aggression is defined as behaviour that aims to hurt someone physically or psychologically. Violence is a form of aggression that causes extreme injury. When engaging in interactive video games, players need to make quick decisions to act aggressively. According to the social learning theory, people learn many types of responses, including aggressive behaviours, based on the observation of how the behaviours are performed and the types of rewards or punishments for such reactions. As such, the contentment of seeing an enemy destroyed might reinforce the use of aggression. Playing such games also seems to elicit aggressive thoughts and emotions, influencing later behaviours. When young boys were assigned to play either an aggressive martial arts game or a nonaggressive and yet similarly arousing racing game, boys who played the martial arts game were more likely to display physical aggression towards toys and greater verbal aggression towards other children compared to those who played the racing game. Other researchers argue that the violence in video games is not very realistic as the characters are animated. Furthermore, such games might provide safe and harmless outlets for aggressive impulses.
Violent pornography refers to sexually explicit material that portrays aggressive and hostile sexual activity. Like violence in video games, evidence is insufficient to conclude whether pornography increases aggression or rape. Researchers believe that people who would be negatively affected by watching violent pornography or engaging in such acts in video games are the ones already predisposed to do so and such games that include rape may not have an effect on most people.
It is in good faith that the government is rating video games so that gamers are only exposed to certain games when they are mature enough and that such acts as drug use, religiously offensive coarse language and sadistic violence are banned to prevent gamers from copying or imitating such behaviours. However, reactance theory postulates that banning or censoring a product may backfire as people crave things that are restricted. Nevertheless, I feel that it is better to be safe than sorry by controlling content in video games that are too extreme so that potential effects on certain people could be reduced as less people would have access to such material. Additionally, more could be done in tandem to prevent aggression by teaching children from young the alternative ways of communication like talking about problems and focus on solving them and to gain empathy by thinking from another’s viewpoint.
Read one of the articles on the rating system for video games: "Ratings for new video games by end April"
posted by hoi @ 3:08 pm
1 Comments:
At May 09, 2008 12:45 pm,
Anonymous said…
true, in this age, violence is sensationalised by the media. i think that parents and school should really educate them more as too much violence can desensitise them and they would lack compassion. and that's really sad.
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