Despite the introduction of video game age ratings all the way back in the early 1990s, I have played violent video games for a fair portion of my life. These video games included titles like the Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Left 4 Dead and Halo series and I even still play them today to an extent. Some people believe younger teens and older pre-teens should be able to play violent video games if they wish as there are actually many reasons it could benefit them.

For example, playing these games online will help a child develop better social skills by communicating with other players in order to achieve victory in a match. On top of this, young players may potentially join other players and socialize in communities or forums after meeting players on these games and likely make many more friends online. This is also a very good way of making friends with classmates, by developing relationships via video games.

In addition to this, action/shooter gamers have better hand-eye coordination according to a 2016 study by Li Li Rongrong Chen and Jing Chen where they tested both people who rarely play video games and those who play them regularly to see if they could keep a car inside of a straight lane with fluctuating wind pushing the car around. Overall, the regulars produced better results than those who rarely played. Having better hand-eye coordination would help young people who would want to become surgeons, physicians, airline pilots and technicians.

Without a doubt, shooter video games (or any type of video game for that matter) are actually very educational in various aspects. Every video game is in its own right, for example, shooting games can teach you how to problem solve by having you try to complete an objective of some sort. Just like TV shows, music and films, video games can educate through dialogue by using words a child might not know the definition of.

In fact, this would also increase a child’s creativity as it would have to have them make their own way of beating the mission. Not only this but things like character/player and gun customization also allows kids to be more expressive and creative in these video games.

On the other hand, many parents and people do believe that young teens or pre-teens should never be able to play violent video games, especially when the age rating is much higher than the child’s age. Accordingly, parents maybe believe that violent video games damage a young person’s mind, making them a more grumpy, moody and overall aggressive person. This concerns parents because it could tarnish both theirs and their children's relationship and perhaps their reputation. This would affect a child’s mind for a long duration of time, even up until they are grown up and have become adults.

Additionally, a child will most likely gain a fairly large amount of weight from playing video games too much. Children should be active and burn calories by playing sports, with their friends.

Parents also would want their children to play and socialize outside and learn through their experiences, creating memories for themselves when they grow older instead of not having many aside from playing a video game, especially a violent one.

Likewise, video games, especially shooters with ranking systems, can be very addictive. Some may say that kids are anti-social this way, even if it could be considered sociable, but the argument against it would be that they do not go outside and meet with friends in real life, communicating that way in real life.

In retrospect, I feel as if children should generally be able to play violent video games. The reason I come to this conclusion is because I personally have made many friends through playing with them in mostly violent video games. I would even go as far as to say that at least 50% of my school friends, old and new, I made through playing with them online this way. The only real exception I would really make is if the game was excessively graphic, gory and/or sexual for not real reason other than it has that ability.