Sometimes conventional wisdom, conventional as it may be, isn’t so wise after all.
It was thought for many years that one of the reasons why parents should limit or altogether restrict their children’s exposure to video games or films with violence is because they would encourage and foster aggressive behavior. While this no doubt has happened, it isn’t so much due to the “monkey-see, monkey-do” syndrome. It is due to the subtleties of being desensitized to violence, which gradually makes certain behaviors seemingly less offensive.
Brian Housman explains in his Tech Savvy Parenting,
The most startling effect that violent games have on kids was not increased aggression but rather a decrease in moral sensitivity. Basically, the longer a child plays violent games, the more desensitized he becomes to real life violence and to the hardships of others. (36).
I’d encourage parents to take a look at Housman’s Tech Savvy Parenting: Navigating Your Child’s Digital Life (Randall House, 2014).
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