The Letter

I chose to write a letter to Mechanicsville Elementary PTA. You can find their contact information at the following link: http://www.carrollk12.org/mes/

November 19, 2013

 

3838 Sykesville Road
Sykesville, MD  21784

 

Dear members of Mechanicsville Elementary PTA,

 My name is Meghan Moore, a student at Stevenson University, and I’m writing you to inform you about a concern that not many parent’s notice. You may wonder how I know if this concern actually affects your school. Well, I interned through my high school at Mechanicsville last year, where I got to spend 3 hours every day in a third grade classroom there. During my internship, my eyes were opened to an issue that affects children in every activity they do. Ever heard of Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and Halo? Well these are just a few of the rated mature games on the market that children are getting their hands on. It only takes one child to start playing it, and that child can pressure other kids to play it and so on and so forth. While I was interning, I learned the kind of video games my third graders were playing, and I got to see and hear how these games affected their behavior. Shockingly, I discovered students writing in their journals about violence, weapons and killing people. I quickly learned which students were playing the mature rated games by observing their behavior and conversations. Most of them were boys who were aggressive and uncooperative. Seeing this behavior made me want to speak out against violent and inappropriate video games, especially for young children. Why aren’t we doing anything to stop it? The violence in video games isn’t going away any time soon, so our job as children’s mentors is to inform parents and encourage safe video game play.

Obviously violence isn’t encouraged in today’s society but why are M rated games still being sold and going right to young children? According to the Entertainment Software Board, 67% of households play video games. 86% of the time children receive permission from their parents to rent or play a video game. So what about that other 14%? Going to the Entertainment Software Board you will find out about the different game ratings and many more statistics like how 25% video gamers are under the age of 18.

I’m not saying that playing video games are bad. Games that get the student active or are able to get them to use their brains are excellent video games that improve the skills of our children. These games are usually rated E for Everyone. However games rated M for Mature are extremely harmful to a child. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry states that “while some games have educational content, many of the most popular games emphasize negative themes and promote the killing of animals or people, drugs/alcohol, foul language, sexual exploitation, disrespect for authority and violence.” Is this something we want our children to be seeing? No, not at all! Parentstv.org lets people know that “showing violent acts without consequences teaches youth that violence is an effective means of solving a conflict.” Allowing children to play these video games is basically telling them that violence is okay. Some might say that video games are keeping aggressive children off the streets but in all reality who’s to say that aggressive child won’t act out in public and think it’s okay because they do it in video games. Violent video games are teaching the youth about things they shouldn’t be learning yet. These games are building up children’s aggression and in our word today, with so many shootings occurring, we need to stop this from happening.

Even if you find there is no problem at all with kids getting their hands on these video games, what is the harm in informing students and parents of the risks? Sending out letters to the student’s guardians would allow them to know the different video game ratings and also a few games that are inappropriate for young children. If the parents are knowledgeable about video games, they will be able to monitor and control the types of games their children are playing. Parents are the most important part in this change because they are with the students more than teachers are. What students do at home affects how they are in school. Encourage parents to get involved with their child’s video game play. Sometimes playing the game with them can show the parent the ins and outs of the games they’re playing. Also making flyers for the hallways to represent anti violence and promote safe game play is something that the students could look at to show them what’s right and wrong. The safety of our children depends on what goes on at home, as well as in school which means they can be influenced at any time of day. Video games are the #1 recreational activity for young children, so what better way to help them grow up to be kind individuals than to prevent them from playing these violent games at such a young age? Making this change will call the help of adults everywhere and it’s important for them to monitor and get involved children playing video games. By doing so, we will be preventing aggressive behavior in the students. The more students that stop playing violent video games, the more peaceful the school environment will be. Thank you for taking your time and reading this letter, and the last thing I ask is that you help me and make a change to prevent violent video game.

 

Sincerely,

Meghan K. Moore

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

“Video Game Industry Statistics.” Entertainment Software Rating Board. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.

“Children and Video Games: Playing with Violence.” American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. N.p, Mar. 2011 Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

“Violent Video Game Campaign.” Parents Televison Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.