What the Experts Say I

In his academic journal, Dr. Craig A. Anderson writes about the ways parents can protect their children from harmful media content. He notes that parents should engage themselves in the content their children are exposed to, as official age ratings by companies, may still contain violence, depending on the age of the child consuming the media. “Although playing a violent video game on an occasional basis is unlikely to produce any long-term harmful consequences, repeated exposure to violent entertainment media of any type is an important risk factor for later aggressiveness” (Anderson, 2006). Taking into consideration Anderson’s claim, parents and the society should worry as children are constantly being exposed to media. On the streets where they see advertisements, at home where they watch the TV or surf the internet, a person is always exposed to one form of media or another, consciously or unconsciously.

When asked the question of how to recognise violence in media, Anderson advises the parents to “play the game, or have someone else demonstrate it for you” (p. 2) This way the parents would be conscious of what their children are watching and they will be aware of every aspect of the video game. The best way to protect the children is to test out the media yourself because companies usually mislead the buyers by the words and keywords. Anderson spots two keywords to look out for in the games description which are: “action and comic mischief” (Anderson, 2006). Those two, even though they may seem harmless do contain violence.

It is very important for parents to engage in their children’s interests and protect them from harmful media content. There are ways to recognise violent media, however, even if the parents try to protect their child with obvious knowledge by gun or swords images on the cover of the game, they may miss the hidden forms of violence contained in seemingly harmless non-violent games.

Bibliography

Anderson, C. (2006). Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents. Video Game Suggestions from Dr. Craig A. Anderson, 200-200. Retrieved January 11, 2015, from http://herbogeminis.com/IMG/pdf/violent_video_games.pdf