There has yet to be a study that can find any solid link between violent video games and people committing violent acts. So do video games really make us more violent? Youth violence often gets blamed on video games, but not other violence. In fact, violent video games may even reduce aggressiveness by acting as a safe outlet for anger and stress.

The battle over violence in video games has been going on since the 1970’s, when a game called Death Race was released. The purpose of the game was to run over “gremlins” that many claimed looked too much like humans. Ironically, people protested by dragging Death Race machines out of arcades and burning them, that is violent in itself. Almost every time there is a major violent crime, the blame is placed mostly on video games, especially when youth are involved. There have been many attempts to pass legislation against violence in video games, with few being successful. In 1994 the video game industry voluntarily established the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) to try to avoid government involvement. As video games continue to become more realistic, so does the concern of the effects of such graphic violence.

One of the biggest concerns most people have about violence in video games is how they affect youth. Parents are concerned that children are playing video games that are too violent for their age. Whether violent video games effect teens and adults or not, many fear that younger children may be more easily influenced by the violence. If this is true, it should be the parents’ choice and responsibility to decide what they allow their children to play. Letting your child play with knives may not be in their best interest either, but there is no specific law against that. It is just common sense that the parents would not give knives to their child. Since there is little research that effectively decides if violent video games affect us, it is the parents’ choice to make. Video game historian Keith Feinstein notes that: “the Columbine shooters played with pipe bombs in their basement and no one stopped them from playing Doom. But no one stopped them from building pipe bombs in their basement, either”. As for the rest of us, we will not be turning into mass murderers anytime soon. Research has found some negative effects of video games pertaining to violence and aggression, but these effects are minimal, and are comparable to many other sources of violence in our society, “some media-violence researchers recently published an article suggesting that reading passages from the Bible with violent content increases “aggression” in much the same way that video games supposedly do. So if video games have to be restricted from children, apparently so do at least some portions of the Bible”, “And, of course, videogames aren’t the only pastimes that could lead to aggression: dodgeball, paintball, and a bad beat in Texas Hold ‘Em can heighten arousal, too. Dr. Vincent Mathews, a radiologist at Indiana University who has studied the brain’s response to violent video games, suggests that the effects of these other activities would be comparable. “I would think that paintball or dodgeball would show similar results,” he says. “But no one is calling for these games to be banned””.  We are surrounded by violence, so why pick on one source that is no worse than the rest?

There has been a lot of research done to try to prove violent video games do make us more violent. Many claim that their results show this is true. However, most studies have produced varied and inaccurate results. Publication bias is a huge issue, “Admittedly, publication bias (the tendency to publish articles that support a hypothesis and not publish those that do not) is very likely a widespread problem in the social sciences and is not unique to video-game studies”. In my own research I found it more difficult to find articles defending video games than I did articles that accused video games of more than just making us more violent. Publication bias can also be linked with over exaggeration, “social scientists may be too prone to make big and frightening pronouncements from weak results”. Other studies have been flawed due to factors like using outdated video games, “Reading the fine print in the Dill and Anderson study, for example, reveals that the researchers used outdated, mismatched games and required an absurdly brief amount of actual playtime from the subjects”. In addition, for some reason there has been very little long term research done. How can we possibly determine the effects video games have on us if we do not conduct studies that last for more than an one or two hours at a time? If there were to be any drastic effects of playing violent video games they would not all be instant. Dr. Dmitri Williams of the University of Illinois said “You can’t study people for 20 minutes and know what’s going to happen to people in society 10 years later”. Another obstacle that hinders any research done is the inability to replicate or allow for actual acts of serious violence. Although it would be effective, we can’t give test subjects a loaded gun and see what they’ll do with it after playing a video game for 10 minutes.  ”We can’t have people assault, rape, or murder someone” in the lab, says Dr. Brad Bushman, a University of Michigan psychologist who studies the effects of media violence. After sorting through all the studies that have been done, and take the above issues into consideration, there remains no significant proof of any link between playing violent video games and becoming more aggressive or violent, “My meta-analysis concluded that there was no evidence to support either a causal or correlational relationship between video games and aggressive behavior”.

            If video games have been accused of making us more violent for many years now, and no one has successfully been able to prove it, why are we still worried about it? To fully understand where this fear of violent video games came from, you must first understand who the people that have this fear are. Looking back in history, there has always been something that parents of a certain generation were afraid of because they thought it would harm the youth of that generation, “Like Elvis in the 50s, or Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s, videogames are still viewed as the dangerous scourge of youth culture”. It is mainly the last generation, who are unfamiliar with video games that blame them for the youth violence they see on the news. Many are intimidated of video games because they do not understand them and the complex culture and effects that surround them; “when people are frightened, oversimplifying a complex problem becomes attractive as a quick, easy fix to an otherwise imposing cultural barrier”, “it is the underlying technology that frightens older generations who can’t comprehend the fast changing mechanics shaping the way the world interacts”,”They do not understand the modern language. They become frightened of what they do not understand.” says video game historian Keith Feinstein. What a lot of people have forgotten is that it is not just youth who are playing violent video games. Many people in their twenties and thirties have grown up with video games and continue to play them. However when there is a violent crime committed by an adult, no one questions if video games are to blame, “We are for some reason more interested in violence when it is committed by young people. But we didn’t ask what kind of music and video games Tim McVeigh [the Oklahoma City bomber] was into” said Sociologist Karen Sternheimer, specializing in pop culture and youth at the University of Southern California. This is the perfect example of how we can blame video games for our problems without looking at the bigger picture. Violent video games have essentially been stereotyped.

One thing I have found odd about all this video game controversy is that we have overlooked our own intelligence. If we are smart enough to conduct studies about their effect on us, then are we not smart enough to know when a game is a game, and not to try to relive it in real life? “Video games, like the rest of the media, form a faceless specter that we have called into being with our own internal desires for sex and violence, yet can turn against when we need a straw man to blame for our own recklessness”, maybe we need to stop blaming video games, and take a look at ourselves: “people who had previously filled out questionnaires reflecting an even-keel personality were less aggro after playing a violent game. Those who had a more aggressive disposition were more susceptible to these heightened emotions”. So there is hope for our intelligence yet, it seems that violent people are more affected by violence in video games. Thus one can assume that people who commit violent crimes are just violent people, not mindless killers brainwashed by Grand Theft Auto. So what does that make the rest of us who play video games? Normal, “The British Board of Film Classification conducted a survey that found that “the violence helps make the play exhilaratingly out of reach of ordinary life…. Gamers seem not to lose awareness that they are playing a game and do not mistake the game for real life.”.

            What if we have this backwards? What if, instead of thinking violent video games causing us to replicate that violence in real life, replicating violence in video games actually stops us from committing said violence for real? It is not a completely absurd thought. Maybe when we are angry and feel like punching the next person who says something to us, we can go blow someone’s head off in a video game and that will take the anger away. Although it probably depends on the type of person you are, I fully believe that taking your anger out on video games is very effective, as well as safe. I personally can relate to this. I also find playing all video games relaxing regardless of the level of violence in them. Now some people may agree with this, some may not, but there is one thing that may support this actually being true, “The numbers do not lie. Violent crime is down, but violence in video games is up”. Violent crimes have been going down over the same time period where video games have been growing more popular and more violent. No one knows if this is because video games help prevent real world violence or if the two facts are unrelated and just a coincidence, but how can video games be making us more violent if the facts prove the opposite? “Could you imagine how far the debate on global warming would have gotten if the earth’s atmospheric temperatures were decreasing while pollutants were being released?”

            With all the research that has been done, it is still unclear if video games do make us more violent. What we do know is, if there are any effects at all, they are minimal. Since it remains a matter of opinion, the only thing we can do individually is make our own personal decision on what to play, and what to allow our children to play. Researcher Craig Anderson, chair of Iowa State University’s Department of Psychology said it best in my opinion, “It’s society, not science, that must decide how to deal with the negative effects of violent video games”. Is this going to stop me from playing video games with violence in them? No, so if you don’t mind, I will now go back to peacefully playing Call of Duty.

Always spank with love.

Spanking is one of the most enjoyable activities in the BDSM community. I personally get spanked at least twice a week.

I have noticed that spanking is a search term that gets me a lot of views as a matter of fact the article that ha given me the most views is an article about spanking.

My article about spanking therapy has garnered over 1000 views. This is a good amount of views. I wrote that article when I had a family member that was thinking about getting spanking therapy. This person did not recieve spanking therapy. I however did recieve some and t helped me deal with a bout of depression. I still get spanked about once a month for therapuetic purposes.

Happy spanking!

There are a lot of things that you can use to spank with. Here are some of the easiest things to find. 

1. Hairbrush.

2. Belt.

3. Spatula.

4. Wooden Spoon.

5. Hard Cover book.

6. Riding Crop.

7. Extension Cord.

8. Ping Pong Paddle.

9. Metal Hanger.

10. Pool cue.

These are ten implements that you can try out the next time you have some spanking fun.

spanking.

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spanking.

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spanking.

spanking.

spanking.

spanking.

spanking.

spanking.

spanking.

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spanking.

spanking.

This article was placed in pending for a long time until I rediscovered it. It was put into pending because I had too many spelling errors in it. The purpose of Triond is to get as many views as possible the more views you get the more money you will earn. So this article was good in principal. The more articles you have the greater your odds of recieving views are. I am nearing 1000 articles. There was a period of time where I forgot that Triond existed. Now I plan on trying to submit at least 14 articles a week. This will help me get my earnings back up. The one thing that I need to do is submit articles that are not time sensitive but I aslo need to submit articles in a timley manner about current events.

This is the second article to my series about the freshman year of high school. In this article I am going to talk to you about the “extracurricular” part of high school (again this applies to pretty much everyone in high school).

 I was only involved in one club /organization through my school and that was theatre. I was in all three of the plays my freshman year and stayed at school until 5:00pm pretty much every day for practice. And I loved every minute of it! I acquired some of my (if not all of my) best friends through theatre. I HIGHLY recommend getting into a club of some sort, whether its a club like anime; or sports like swim or track; or organizations like student council, GET INVOLVED. It makes you a ‘more rounded student/person’ so colleges like you a little bit more, and the even bigger plus- you get a whole bunch of really close, awesome friends who you will love!

The trick is to find something, whether it is a sport or a club, that YOU will enjoy. The rest follows. If you enjoy it and the other people there enjoy it, then more than likely ya’ll will enjoy a lot of same things, giving you some really close and great friendships that start and are connected on a little bit of a deeper level.

Tip: If you hear about or have an idea for a club that your school does not currently have, talk to your administrators about it and if they approve, find a sponsor for it and voila! You have a club, it’ll be easier if you get one or two other people to help you get it started, from there see if you can get it put on the announcements for the word gets spread fast and those who want to join, can! (P.s that will ALSO look great on college applications- “I started my freshman year and then ran the _______ club all four years of high school” ß Awesome!)

The most important thing is to HAVE FUN. Don’t NOT do something because of other people, even if those other people are your friends. Be YOU, if you want to join the swim team DO IT. If you want to join the ‘Glee club’ then DO IT. It doesn’t matter what your friends say because odds are you will find other (possibly even better) friends in the clubs you wish to join. (If they are REALLY your friends they will support you no matter what.)

Also, try out a little bit of everything, if you are slightly interested in joining something, go to a meeting or talk to someone who is in the club to see what it’s like. You may be surprised!

Being a part of something makes high school SO much more fun! Makes sure to check out the clubs at your school, you can even talk to your counselors about what clubs your school has available to you and find out who you need to contact for information about them. Don’t be that kid who goes to school and then goes home. Colleges don’t like that and honestly, YOU won’t like it.  High school isn’t ALL about the academics- it’s about having FUN too, and being a more ‘well-rounded person’. So ENJOY high school while you have the chance, but don’t OVERLOAD yourself by signing up for 10 different clubs, find out how many times the clubs meet a month and on what days they meet, along with for how long. Make sure they don’t conflict OR take up all of your time. You need down time and time to keep up with your school work so I recommend joining the 3-5 you want to join THE MOST. And if you only want to join 1 or 2- that’s fine! As long as you are in something and enjoying it- that’s all that matters!

Managing children who backtalk

In dealing with backtalk it is essential that parents model the behaviour they wish to see in their child. Children always learn behaviours from someone. By establishing a relationship with children based on respect, parents can nip backtalk before it gets out of hand. Here are some steps to try to end the habit and have respectful relationships with your children.

• Set clear rules: What is most important to you? No put-downs, muttering or condescending gazes? Be firm in your tolerance and announce the rules to everyone in the household. Post them in the kitchen for reference.

• Decide not to take it: Always follow through with consequences to undesirable behaviours. Parents who refuse to tolerate rude behaviour have children who are not rude. Of course, this works two ways – treat your child with kind and understanding behaviour.

• Explain it: Help your child express his emotions in a more acceptable way. Discussing negative emotions and feelings with your child helps him to accept them, release them and understand why he feels them.

• Establish a code: For times when you are in public or when friends are around, let your children know they are nearing the disrespectful zone with a prearranged signal. This could be a phrase or a gesture. Follow through with consequences for misbehaviour.

• Don’t get in the act: As tempting as it is at times to say something rude back to your child, don’t. By practicing patience and understanding you are setting an excellent example instead.

Teach respect to children

Never forget it takes two people to argue, your children cannot argue by themselves. Choosing your battles goes a long way in teaching respect to your children. State your case once and allow your child to state his and set the consequence or walk out of the room if need be. This shows children your word is “final” and will not be changed, though you value their opinions. The result is respectful children and adults.

Children of the 21st century have been warned greatly about the effects of bullying; low self-esteem, shyness, self-harm, and maybe even suicide. But, even though the U.S. has taken the matters of bullying into their own hands, are we really teaching the next generation the correct information on verbal, virtual, and physical bullying?

In and out of schools, kids and teens across the U.S. have either witness or have been apart of (as either the bully or the target) bullying. With this, some students have tried to stop bullying, as requested by teachers and staff, but many still keep their head hung and walk away. Why is this? Well, according to personal observations, teens have an idea to be humiliated by telling the higher authority about a problem, not only in bullying, but in academics such as algebra and literature as well. Some teens try to solve the situation on their own, bringing much more havoc and chaos into their lives, and others try to avoid or ignore the situation (or situations). Even though staff and teachers expect the teens and children to be speaking up, only about half of the witnesses who have been bullied or who have seen bullying occur actually do so.

What’s the point? The higher authority needs to keep their eyes on the younger generation so that they themselves could stop the bullying in adolescence, and so that the younger peoples could have less pressure and anxiety from the bullying happening right before them. Yes, even though teachers may tell their students how to stop bullying, why not prevent the bullying from occurring yourselves?

How To Stop And Prevent Bullying

First of all, this isn’t another lecture that could have been easily found in your Health class’s brochure basket. This is a tutorial on how to stop bullying, and how to prevent the bullying from occurring to your child (as either becoming the bully or the target). Also, this may not be sufficient for your child for bullying prevention or for you to stop the bullying in your school (if you are a teen or child yourself).

How to prevent bullying for your child:

• Pay attention to them during their adolescence. One of the main reasons why children and teens have become bullies is because of how they’ve been treated at home. The bullies would often feel neglected, abused, or even forgotten in the privacy of their own home, so they follow the acts of his/her surroundings and follow the same steps to his/her peers at school. This should sometimes include buying your child what he/she wants, but not at all times, because your child may become a bully by wanting something from someone else that your child does not have.
• Teach your child about generosity. One of the steps to becoming a better person and to avoid being a bully is to be kind and generous to others, despite their ethnicity, religion, or philosophy. But, be careful with this, because teaching your child to be too sensitive can result to him/her being bullied.

How to stop bullying:

• Show support to the victim, not the bully. One thing that the bully may want is support, whether it’s from friends and peers, or even teachers and staff members. The victim needs support, so that he/she can stand up and fight back by using good choices and courage. This may include helping the victim outside of school with his/her homework or schoolwork, hanging out with that person outside of school, or even standing up for the victim.
• Tell an adult. No matter how others may think of you in the future, you must contact someone about bullying, since it is a difficult issue. If you cannot contact an adult because you think you’re being a “tattle”, then tell a peer, and ask if they can contact an adult, since you cannot do the job.

Growing up in rich families or the not so rich,   most children have become demanding and lack  of communication with their parents or other family relatives is the result.  Bad behaviour abuse and neglect in many ways is noticed and  busy parents fail to see the issue.

Is there a better way of raising children from the older  generation to the present?

Discipline seems to  be  a thing of the past, not every one fits in, talking to your child seems impossible, sometimes you feel hatred, anger and  sadness.  It is entirely up to any parent on how they raise their children patience is required, a good childhood results in a happy adulthood, you don’t want your child to carry the childhood memories  to adulthood, especially, if they are bad ones.

Make your child’s life a happy one, never ignore your child, always be there when needed, show love, care and talk all the time be interested in your child’s activities.  A parent interested in their child’s life will see the signs of depression, bullying at school, cyberbullying and other issues like unhappiness will be noticed from the start and resolved faster.

Children raised by grandparents or other family relatives are good when  both parents are working, but sometimes the idea is not  so helpful.  Most children get away with any thing being raised by other family members, and then expect the same from the parent.

Choices are hard when raising children compromise and be  part of your child’s life

Through the eyes of a 17 year old, the world is a dark place. One may wonder why be such a pessimist? The question, on the contrary, is actually why not be? In just having been here for 17 years, one may find they can write a book of at least a million chapters based on the hurt that they have witnessed some endure. A book based on the hopelessness in many people’s eyes, the silent cries for help that are often overlooked, and most especially, the unsuccessful pursuit people have had in trying to find the meaning of life on their own terms, and finding it is just best they give up. See, all those circumstances happen to be very real in the eyes of a 17 year old.  

Why is it that one group of people are able to get all the happiness possible to pursuit in the world, yet another group struggles daily to even get a ¼ of the happiness experienced by the other group? Or better yet, why is that everyone gives up hope in a better tomorrow and the strong sight of hopelessness is able to be read right off of their naked eyes?

But see, if one really wants to comprehend the meaning to life, they ask more in depth questions, such as why has suicide been accepted so much in today’s society? It is all common news now to hear of someone committing suicide, so much that sometimes, you know, if you really want to speak how you really see it- it is even, sort of “expected” of some. See, through the eyes of a 17 year old, struggle, hurt, pain, and humiliation are what is naturally accepted in society, so why bother to find the meaning to such a life of misery?

Well, it’s like when one is in a relationship, you know? Like the ones where the person is no good. He displays the characteristics of an abuser, a liar, a cheater and you know that they will never ever change and they are indeed hopeless, but for some reason, you have that drive inside where you tell yourself, you can change him/her and make them “IT”. You compromise your high standards because you believe that there is something inside them that will switch into the right position. . .you know. . . someday…whenever… IF EVER. But hey, hey you can change him! I mean he’s close… enough. It’s like that with life, you never know what your end result will be when you head out on that quest to find the meaning of life, you have a slight idea, but you decide to take your chances. A 17 year old, will testify to you that they know what it is like to lose hope, and some that have to a really high extent will even show you- at their funeral.

So what is the meaning of life? Well a 17 year old can also tell you that the answer to that question is something you need to figure out on your own because experiences, trials, and the never ending darkness of each and every single person’s life will give a unique definition to that person. That 17 year old is me. My explanation so far as to what the meaning of life is well, you live, you hurt, you cry, you die.  And that is just IT.

Based on a survey of victims online by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, only a small proportion of children seeking pornography on purpose, and most correct answers to quickly leave the site, although some report the incident to parents (Wolak et al ., 2006). Exposure to sexually explicit content online can happen very easily through a Google search using the word misguided innocence as “toys,” misspelled word or URL, website misleading or email, or a link or an image sent by a colleague or via spam (Wolak et al , 2007).

When evaluating what it means that your child see sexually explicit material, before reacting or draw conclusions, the first step is to assess the situation to find out what really happened and whether there is a problem. Is this an ongoing problem? How many times has this happened? Does this seem to be a habit? Are there other changes in behavior, mood or sleep? Does your child isolate themselves?

Find out how your child have found these sites. Is there anyone else in the home often suffer from sexual addiction websites or hidden? When others in the house with access to a computer has a hidden sex addiction, children are exposed to such materials with or without the knowledge of parents, giving children more opportunities and temptations to explore the website as their own.

Is the site going and what the child he see? For example, look up the meaning and effect of the word “sex” on “ehow.com” (a website which is the encyclopedia “” kind of way to do something) different from watching online porn videos. Children can find, or see, the site out of curiosity after first stumbled upon them – or to find out about sex. When the motivation of curiosity, diagnosis can only be “juvenile” or “ahead of the youth”, the impact is benign, and the prognosis is good.

However, viewing pornography, especially in a sustainable way, can have potentially devastating effects on children, and may be encouraged or perpetuated by the loneliness, isolation and coercion.

What are the potential negative effects of viewing pornography online?

In the absence of any context, and without having to learn about healthy sexuality, or known, the child may have an idea of ​​sex as confusing and take pictures that they see a model representing the behavior of adults. They are thus introduced to sex before they are ready through the pictures they do not understand, which often involves abnormalities of sex, and sex regardless of the relationship or meaning, responsibility, and intimacy.

Children are most at risk when they are repeatedly exposed to images that overstimulating and potentially addictive. If viewed compulsive and accompanied by sexual release through masturbation, Internet pornography can have a desensitizing effect, require greater intensity and frequency and cause aberrant sexuality seem like the norm.

addiction to porn sites function in a manner similar to any other addiction, which leads to a cycle of preoccupation, compulsion, acting out, isolation, self-absorption, shame and depression as well as a distorted view of real relationships and intimacy. However, not everyone exposed to pornography becomes an addiction.

Negative Impact Positive Internet

Adolescents are most vulnerable to addiction are those who can not rely on parents to provide a consistent source of contact and comfort to help them manage their emotional state. family include, but are not limited to, which parents can suffer from addictions – including alcohol – or fail to be emotionally available for other reasons. Children from vulnerable families – they are often low self-esteem and feeling alone. They learned not to trust or depend on others and find ways to entertain and excite themselves that do not involve people who are reliable and available to them and within their control.

Other teens are exposed to online dangers of unwanted sexual advances. Adolescents are most vulnerable from every age group so unwanted sexual (Wolak et al., 2006). One in seven teens has reported experiencing an unwanted provocation – most of which involved an invitation to meet offline, ask teens to talk about sex or sexual questions to answer, or ask teens to sexually explicit images (Wolak et al., 2006).

A related danger for teens online involves “sexting” – sending sexually explicit photos by cell phone normally or occasionally via the Internet. Sexting is most often engaged in by teens with their friends and usually involves peer pressure. Sexting often creates expectations of “hooking up” (sex) at the receiver, and increase the pressure to have sex, and the chances of it happening, during the next meeting.

Sexting at risk in this way and, also, because it often leads to unexpected disasters that reputation may be irreparable. This often begins with a photo that is sent to a potential girlfriend or boyfriend, who then – unbeknownst to the sender – who passed around and forwarded to the recipient and friends “contact,” such as chain letters spread out of control. In addition, these photographs may appear again at a later date and used for blackmail or to wreak havoc in one’s career.

How to protect adolescents from the dangers of pornography sites are aware of what happened to them, and in your family, and make it safe for them to talk with you. Knowing that your child has seen Internet pornography is no reason to panic. Most children and adolescents do not suffer from sex addiction. And when they do, these problems are usually problems of other secondary or hidden secrets in the family who influenced them, who should be the focus of treatment along with the teen’s symptoms.

To keep the teens from the dangers of pornography sites, the key is to be their allies and help them work with you in wanting to be safe. If you are not on the same side, your teen will find a way to outsmart or work around even the best technology and carefully thought out rules. Remember – the relationship you have with your child and the perception of you as trustworthy and sensible is the most protective factor against all the dangers faced by youth today.