The social problem that I"m going to report on is violent video games in our society. Society views this as a social problem because people believe that, with the increase in violent video games that are out on the market, violent crimes are also increasing. I chose this specific problem because I find it interesting that people are trying to blame video games for the increase in violent behavior among teenagers, especially boys. I agree to some extent that violent video games can increase the aggression of already aggressive boys and girls, although I wouldn't go as far as saying that it is a sole contributor to violence in every teenager out there. According to researcher Jeanne Funk, "Playing violent video games probably will not turn a docile, well-socialized child into a bully", but violent video games can be known to make already aggressive children even more aggressive and make them at risk to act out on their video game fantasies.(Funk) .
Some objective conditions relating to this social problem would be the studies done by Dr. Craig A. Anderson and Dr. Karen E. Dill, two psychologists who study teenage behavior. The conducted two studies to try to relate aggressive behavior to violent video game playing. The first study involved two-hundred and twenty-seven college students. They studied the aggression trait in every student and then asked them to report their recent aggressive behavior. Then they asked the students to tell them how often they had played video games. The findings showed that the students who played more violent video games had a more stronger aggression trait and had more aggressive behavior in general. The second study involved two-hundred and ten students and the doctors had some students play Wolfenstein 3D (a violent video game) and some students play Myst (a non-violent video game). After playing the video games the doctors had the students simulate a punishment of an opponent by having them give their opponent a noise blast that lasted as long as the student pushed the button down.