The Impact of Violence in Video Games on the Intellectual Development of Young People: Grand Theft Auto

Since the creation of video games there has been much discussion over whether the benefits of video games outweigh the negative effects on young people, or vice versa. The technology for video games is constantly innovating, and video games for children has become more of a lifestyle than a hobby. In a study by the United States Department of education, 8 in 10 of youth in America plays videogames, and 8.5% of those kids are classified as addicted to video games. Apart from the youth spending over 20+ hours playing games which directly leads to poor schooling, there are also multiple psychological effects of playing videogames. Which retards the intellectual development of young people. Grand Theft Auto 5 was released on September 17 of 2013, and since then has broken 7 Guinness world records. Including the highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours ($800 million). Grand theft auto is a open world action adventure game, that allows the player to control the games character in a game world based on Southern California. The game gives the players ultimate freedom and combines both violence and wealth of the character to create the ‘dream’ life in a game setting. It can already seen that the potential harms that the game can bring to young people with still developing minds. But beneath the obvious effects of the game, there are deeper psychological effects through continuous exposure to Grand Theft Auto. With violence and the virtual world realities being predominant issues with video games. Grand theft auto takes both to the extreme as the themes of the game perfectly carries out the issues. Upon research and real world incidents that prove video games to be harmful to the intellectual development of young people, Grand theft auto may be the top dog of all games as it combines all of the dangerous aspects a video game can have.

Violence in video games has been a controversial subject since the birth of digital gaming. Grand theft auto 5 to