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RUSSIAN EDUCATION AND SOCIETY

Russian Education and Society, vol. 47, no. 11, November 2005, pp. 88–96. © 2005 M.E. Sharpe, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 1060-9393/2005 $9.50 + 0.00.

A.V. FEDOROV

School Students and Computer Games with Screen Violence About fifteen years ago, school students in Russia spent their free time in what were called video salons where they could get their fill of watching Western movie hits that they never had access to before. Video cassette recorders were very scarce at that time, and by no means everyone could afford to acquire this luxury. But times have changed and now practically every home has one; TV channels show dozens of foreign thrillers, crime shows, and horror films from morning to night. These days, school students from low-income strata of the population spend hours sitting in computer rooms and Internet clubs, where, for a relatively small fee, they can play interactive video games. There can be no doubt that the popularity of this way of spending time is a phenomenon that is just as temporary as the boom in video salons was. Just as soon as the personal computer takes its place along with the TV set and the video cassette recorder in the ordinary Russian home, adolescents will start playing computer games at home. To determine what games they prefer, we conducted a content analysis of eighty-seven computer games found in computer game centers in the city of Taganrog. English translation © 2005 M.E. Sharpe, Inc., from the Russian text © 2004 “Pedagogika.” Shkol’niki i komp’iuternye igry s ‘ekrannym nasiliem,’” Pedagogika, 2004, no. 6, pp. 45–49. A publication of the Russian Academy of Education. 88

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The results of the analysis showed the following: (1) practically all of the games that are accessible to people who go to computer rooms—most under eighteen—represented interactive actions on crime, military, fantasy, and sports themes (for example, auto racing); (2) only 17.24 percent (fifteen out of eighty-seven) of the games did not contain scenes of violence; most of these had sports themes; (3) 55.17 percent (forty-eight out of eighty-seven) showed scenes of killing (e.g., “Doom,” “Young Blood,” and “Final Doom”); (4) 39.08 percent (thirty-four out of eighty-seven) were based on scenes of fighting of various degrees of viciousness (e.g., “Kensei” and “Hercules”); (5) 35.63 percent (thirty-one out of eighty-seven) depicted scenes of disasters (e.g., “X-COM” and “Resident Evil”); (6) 82.75 percent (seventy-two out of eighty-seven) contained at least one type of screen violence, such as murder, fighting, or disaster. This violence was often presented in a variety of combinations of fighting, killing, torture, disaster, and so on; (7) the repertoire of the computer rooms was dominated by relatively simple games, strelialki (shoot-‘em-up games). More complex games of strategy and questing [kvesty] (the interactive search for a way out of some situation) were in the minority. A questionnaire survey of seventy-six visitors to computer rooms in the city of Taganrog, students between the ages of seven and seventeen, confirmed this preliminary observation: the overwhelming majority (seventy-three) were adolescent males. The computer game preferences of girls did not generally differ from that of boys. And so, the computer game rooms are usually visited by adolescents males age twelve to fifteen (54 percent of their total number). Younger boys, from seven to nine, who are generally under parental control, comprise a minority, from 1 to 5 percent. Not many players are over sixteen; evidently they no longer have enough free time (some young people over eighteen are serving in the armed forces, while others are going to an institution of higher learning, working, getting ready to enroll in a college or university, and so on). Our analysis revealed that practically all of the

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Table 1 Age Range of Students Who Go to Computer Game Rooms Age of visitors to computer rooms 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7

No. 3 8 10 10 11 10 6 9 4 4 1

% 3.940 10.520 1.315 1.315 14.470 13.150 7.890 11.840 5.260 5.260 1.310

people who visited computer rooms had played games containing scenes of violence more than once (see Table 1). It can be seen from Table 2 that in all of the age groups, the number of preferred computer games that contain scenes of violence exceeds the number of “safe” games (primarily those involving sports). Moreover, the preference for games that involve killing, fighting, and other elements of violence, such as “Doom,” “Final Doom,” “Resident Evil,” and “Mortal Combat,” is typical of students between the ages of eleven and fourteen. In the virtual world it does not cost anything to shoot a man with a pistol or a machine gun, to blow him up with a hand grenade, to cut him up with a power saw, and so forth. Western scientists have been studying the problem of the effect of media violence on young spectators for about sixty years. Many studies have found a cause-and-effect link between media violence for entertainment and children’s aggression: “the immoderate consumption of audiovisual information that contains realistically portrayed scenes of violence (1) encourages the idea that violence is an acceptable way to solve social conflicts; (2) fosters indifference to human suffering; (3) causes viewers to fear that they may become the

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Table 2 Themes of Interactive Games That Are Attractive to Visitors to Computer Rooms Age of visitors to computer rooms

No.

%

No. of favorite games containing violence

No. of favorite games that do not contain violence

17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7

3 8 10 10 11 10 6 9 4 4 1

3.94 10.52 13.15 13.15 14.47 13.15 7.89 11.84 5.26 5.26 1.31

5 11 13 16 17 14 10 14 7 4 2

3 8 11 6 10 7 3 9 4 4 1

Total

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100.00

113

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victims of violence; and (4) serves as a justification for the use of violence in real life” [1, p. 10; 2, p. 16]. As correctly pointed out by S.R. Lamson, “children get used to the notion that violence in society is something that is normal; they are afraid that they may become the victim of a criminal, and they are less ready to come to the aid of the victim of a crime. They become more aggressive and cruel” [3, p. 25]. A similar conclusion has been reached by G.M. Gedatus [4, p. 17]. We are in full agreement with J. Cantor’s opinion that the various kinds of mass media show children a great many frightening and anxiety-producing images, most of which they would probably never see in real life. And children’s trauma is not always a slow, “cumulative” process. Even one brief glance at a TV program or film can create a long-lasting feeling of fear, psychological anxiety, and nervousness in a child [especially between the ages of seven and ten—A.F.] [5, p. 70]. Scientists have singled out a number of psychological impacts

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of media violence: effects of aggression, fear, indifference, and “appetite” [6, pp. 312–13]. Researchers at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have concluded that “the effect that violence as entertainment has on a child is complex and varied. There are some children who are more sensitive to it than others” [1, p. 11]. In this regard there can be no doubt that children between the ages of seven and ten are most susceptible to that influence. “Psychologists are unanimous in saying that up to the age of three or four, children are not able to distinguish between reality and what they see on the screen. For them, TV is a reflection of the world, and it does not look very friendly. . . . Children watch TV an average of four hours per day, and as much as eleven hours per day in cities. This means that in many cases, TV is reality” [3, p. 26]. For this audience of children, this reality is presented as an endless series of fighting, killing, and other acts of violence, and there can be no doubt that it has a negative influence on their psychological state. After lengthy research, Cantor has made a detailed classification of the seven possible reasons why scenes of violence are so attractive to the audience of children. (1) The desire to experience excitement and/or fear (“I watch horrible things because I like to be scared” [7, pp. 96–98]). There is evidence that watching scenes of violence, or the threat of violence, increases heart rate and raises blood pressure. In our survey, 13.11 percent of students mentioned the factor of excitement among the main results of video violence, and another 9.11 percent mentioned emotional stimulation. (2) The desire for the virtual experience of aggression (the empathy effect). In one of the studies conducted by Cantor, 48 percent of the students answered that they always feel sympathy for the victim, while 45 percent said that they usually have sympathy for the “bad guy”; 39 percent admitted that they simply like to watch people on the screen fighting, hurting each other, and so on. These findings show that being fascinated by media scenarios with a realistic portrayal of violence is related directly to receiving pleasure from viewing such scenes, as well as to frequent self-identification with the aggressor instead of with a positive character or

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the victim [7, pp. 98–99]. According to our findings, a feeling of aggressiveness in connection with watching violence on the screen was experienced by 8.44 percent of the students surveyed, and a feeling of intensity was experienced by 7.78 percent. (3) The opportunity to ignore restrictions (the effect of “forbidden fruit”). Very often, parents restrict their children’s access to scenes of TV violence, so these scenes become more desirable for a certain segment of juveniles. We did not find many respondents in this category—about 2 percent. (4) The attempt to see violence and/or aggression reflecting their own experience. People who are aggressive like to watch programs that portray behavior that is characteristic of them [7, pp. 102–3]. This is confirmed by studies of risk groups [8, pp. 154–55]. (5) The chance to study the criminal world around them (to understand the role of violence in society and in the local place where the respondents live). “Children for whom violence is an inseparable part of the social world around them are more interested in violence on the screen. A number of factors give rise to this interest: children like the kinds of entertainment programs that are similar to their own life, programs that resonate with their experience; they have a utilitarian approach to watching TV and video programs, watching the kinds of programs that can teach them important lessons related to their own problems” [7, p. 104]. In defense of this theory, Cantor cites a number of opinions expressed by American adolescents: “Violence on the screen makes me think about the events in my own life” and “I can learn how to defend myself” [7, p. 105]. We have heard similar comments from Russian students. (6) Complacency (“this whole nightmare has nothing to do with me”). Being exposed to media stories that contain scenes of violence can help people to escape their own fears and problems [7, pp. 105–6]. In our survey, the recreation factor drawing them to media stories was mentioned by one out of every ten students. (7) The effect of gender (the role of violence in the gender component of socialization). There is a gender difference in the way children perceive scenes of violence. “When boys and girls watch the same TV show, the boys may be more susceptible to the ‘ag-

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gression effect’ and identify themselves with a typical aggressive male character, whereas the girls are much more likely to experience fear, because they identify themselves with the female character, who is typically the victim” [6, p. 316]. Cantor asserts: “Boys and men can be seen more often in scenes in which a conflict is resolved through the use of physical force. . . . Boys are more likely to be interested in scenes of violence on TV” [7, p. 100]. We have determined that among youngsters who are active fans of screen violence there are twice as many boys as girls. Among respondents age seven to seventeen, 21.03 percent of fans of violence were boys and young men, and only 12.44 percent were girls and young women. These conclusions have been confirmed by other Russian researchers [9, p. 2; 10, pp. 153–54]. However, individual differences are very strong in this regard: “not every boy or young man likes to see violence depicted, and not every female is repelled by it” [11, p. 214]. J. Goldstein has also spent many years studying the reasons why scenes of media violence are attractive to their audience, and he has come to the following conclusions. The greatest interest in screen violence is manifested by males, by those who are inclined to be aggressive, who want to experience stimulation and keen sensations, by people who are looking for their own social self or a way to get along with their peers, who are inclined to try “forbidden fruit,” who desire to see fairness restored, and who are able to maintain an emotional distance so that the visual images do not cause them to become too anxious. Some of them do this in order to manage their moods, by artificially causing themselves to become excited and stimulated in order to give vent to emotions [11, p. 223]. Another view is that scenes of violence and/or aggression in media stories serve to “prepare a person psychologically to cope with tense emotional situations and make it possible for him to show his physical involvement in symbolic form and his ability to act in situations of crisis, to exercise mental self-regulation at a moment of confusion” [12]. Scientists of the National Television Violence Study research group have stated explicitly that “most media products that con-

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tain violence portray a significant threat of inflicting harm to many viewers, especially children” [13, p. 150]. Moreover, A. Levin and L. R. Huesmann tracked the TV preferences of a control group over twenty-two years. They found that a propensity to “watch violence on TV is a factor by which it is possible to predict a person’s violent or aggressive behavior in their future life, and it is a factor that is even more significant than common factors such as antisocial behavior on the part of parents, poverty, or racial affiliation” [13, p. 19]. Media violence is invading Russian society more and more strongly, and there is no effective system to impose age restrictions on the viewing and purchase of audiovisual products or to control the showing of scenes of violence on the screen. What is the solution to this situation? A familiar route is to demand bans and restrictions, but, as experience has shown, this is not very effective. One way to solve the problem is not only to promote the development of games that foster understanding as well as entertainment, with minimum violence, in the computer market, but also to reactivate the movement of media education. Educators will have to learn how to make use of the rich possibilities of screen arts, the Internet, computer animation, and interactive games in order to develop children’s creative abilities, critical thinking, and esthetic perception. References 1. “American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Media Violence Harms Children.” In J.D. Torr, ed., Is Media Violence a Problem? San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2002. 2. Wilson, B.J., et al. “Content Analysis of Entertainment Television: The Importance of Context.” In J.T. Hamilton, ed., Television Violence and Public Policy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998. 3. Lamson, S.R. “Media Violence Has Increased the Murder Rate.” In C. Wekesser, ed., Violence in the Media. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 995. 4. Gedatus, G.M. Violence in the Media. Mankato, MN: LifeMatters, 2000. 5. Cantor, J. “Mommy, I’m Scared: Protecting Children from Frightening Mass Media.” In Media Violence Alert. Zionsville, IN: DreamCatcher Press, 2000.

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6. Slaby, R.G. “Media Violence: Effects and Potential Remedies.” In G.S. Katzmann, ed., Securing Our Children’s Future. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2002. 7. Cantor, J. “Children’s Attraction to Violent Television Programming.” In J. Goldstein, ed., Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 8. Tarasov, K.A. “Movie Violence and Its Effect” [Kinematograf nasiliia i ego vozdeistvie]. In M.I. Zhabskii, K.A. Tarasov, and Iu.U. FokhtBabushkin, The Movies in Present-Day Society: Functions, Influence, Demand [Kino v sovremennom obshchestve: Funktsii—vozdeistvie— vostrebovannost’]. Moscow, 2000. 9. Sobkin, V.S., and Glukhova, T.V. “The Adolescent at the TV Screen” [Podrostok u teleekrana]. Pervoe sentiabria, 15 December 2001. 10. Tarasov, K.A. “College Students and the ‘Aggressive Movie Diet’ of TV” [“Agressivnaia kinodieta” TV i studenchestvo]. Vysshee obrazovanie v Rossii, 2002, no. 3. 11. Goldstein, J. “Introduction.” In Goldstein, Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment. 12. Petrus’, G. “Aggression in Computer Games” [Agressiia v komp’iuternykh igrakh]. Available at www.computerra.ru/offline/2000/347/ 2605/. 13. Cannon, C. “Media Violence Increases Violence in Society.” In Wekesser, ed., Violence in the Media.

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