Ancillary #1: Bans on Video Games?
Discussions about banning violent video games and TV shows and restricting children’s playing time have become popular. There has been a growing number of high schoolers shooting cases in the US in recent years. Getting upset about these cases, some people start to blame those video games, TV shows, and movies that involve violent and illegal acts as the direct causes of real-world teenager violence. Films, TV shows, and especially video games are very addicting. Many worries that early exposure to those violent scenes may cause those addicted, fanatic teenagers, whose brain is still growing and values are not fully formed at that point, to misuse and apply them to reality. Furthermore, the addiction to those video games also causes complaints from parents. Those video games can distract teenagers from studying and exercising, which causes worsening academic performance in school and unhealthy rest schedules. Thus, to prevent such a situation, China makes players register with their ID number and limits the online game playing time of children under 18 to only three hours a week. Children under 18 can only play video games for an hour every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 8 pm to 9 pm.
When viewing these situations from a local and national perspective, everything appears reasonable. Since the US is a country that allows the ownership of guns, society then needs to pay close attention to and advocate for the proper use of firearms. Since China has a dense population and a strong power in central government, issuing regulations is probably the most effective way to prevent the potential risks the game addiction can bring to Chinese teenagers. However, when putting this reasonable national perspective into the global context, we need to act and resolve this problem as a collective. Issuing regulations and bans seem to be unrealistic. We need to be aware of the differences within different political systems. One may not have the decisive power in central government or the freedom to own guns.
Hence, the other global approach occurs. Rather than issuing potential top-down regulations, human society must rethink and pay attention to resolve this problem from the bottom up by focusing on the root: Why do teenagers choose to get addicted? How can we change the way teenagers think about games? Researching the trigger of teenagers to be willingly addicted to video games or misusing violent scenes should be a priority. A potential solution is to divert teenagers from the game to other aspects: playing outdoor physical sports. On the other hand, parents and teachers need to focus more on building up a culture that can support children’s mental wellness in preventing misuse of games or addictions.
