There doesn’t seem to be a day that goes by without hearing about acts of violence, both local and global. Violence is defined as involving physical force intended to hurt, damage or kill someone or something. Whether it’s highly publicized violence (mass shootings, racist crimes, homicide) or not (violence in school and home settings including bullying), acts of aggression and physical violence by children and youth are causing significant safety concerns in homes, schools and communities. While violent crime statistics for adults have declined over the past 5 years, for children and youth this is unfortunately not the case. Statistics Canada 2025 report showed a 19% increase in 2022 and an additional 13% increase in 2023 of violent crimes by children and youth in Canada. While there are likely multiple reasons for this rise in violent crime by children and youth, one risk factor that is hard to ignore is the rise in violent media content on the internet. Research shows that exposure to violent media content in childhood is associated with seriously violent behaviour in adolescence and adulthood, even for those who have other risk factors. This article raises a salient question “When children are exposed to virtual digital media violence repeatedly at an early age and for long durations, could this exposure be considered traumatizing”? Taking this concept a step further, when children play video games or watch violent cartoons or pornography, could this visual imagery elicit a ‘trauma state’ that could later be acted out in real life? Can this trauma state induced by viewing violence acts, alter brain structure and function significant enough to change behavior? Ultimately, can you become what you watch? In closing, this article profiles 10 red flags for identifying trauma induced violence and proposes immediate steps to take to curb escalating violence in homes, schools and communities.
With all the hype (and lawsuits) regarding harms caused to children from AI and social media, it seems that violent media content (video games and pornography), has taken a back burner in the press. Yet surprisingly on my blog Moving to Learn, the most frequently viewed article is Why videogames should be banned for children under the age of 12. My assumption is that people search for topics that they’ve not yet figured out a solution for, and that videogame overuse and addiction must still be highly problematic for some families. Quite possibly it’s not searching for videogame overuse/addiction that is driving traffic to my blog, as much as it is the adverse effects of videogames which include aggressive and violent behaviors (causality proven by research 2011 meta-analysis). Family violence in homes including both ‘child to parent’ and ‘parent to child’ has become increasingly problematic (see Family Violence: How big is the problem in Canada?). In schools, 2025 research showed rates of violence and aggression directed against educators by students were rising and substantial (see below graphs). In communities, as child and youth violence and aggression grows, even sporting events have become unsafe places for athletes, families and coaches.
So what changes occur to children and youth when they view violent media content at an early age, repeatedly and for long durations? After birth, the developing brain wires itself based on experience. There are 2 brain development processes to consider when trying to understand how children can become aggressive and/or violent after viewing violent media content: proliferation and pruning. When an infant is born, their brains have a full complement of diverse neuronal pathways…like roadways on a map. Based on their environment and experience, over their lifetime, 2/3 of these pathways will be pruned with extensive neuronal proliferation formed between pathways. The developing brain is literally “wired” according to which areas are being used on a day to day basis. Heavy use by some areas of the brain solidifies those tracks while infrequently used tracks become pruned. Media content that requires slow paced thinking is termed ‘mindful’ content which engages and wires tracks in the frontal lobe, while fast paced and ‘mindless’ content (video games, porn, cartoons, movies) prunes tracks to frontal lobe. “Use it or you loose it” concept is applicable to brain development regarding type of media content viewed. The frontal lobe is known for impulse control, attention, self-regulation, memory, learning etc. Through exposure to fast paced violent media content, humans are literally pruning tracks to frontal lobe and thus de-evolving as a species.
In understanding the association between violent media content and aggressive violent acts, we must consider the vast real estate in the brain allocated to processing visual and auditory stimuli. When a developing brain is exposed to early, repetitive and long duration violent content, not only are the neuronal tracks to frontal lobes pruned, but the visual and auditory processing areas are proliferated with neuronal connections. Neurons that “fire together wire together” resulting in both hypersensitivity and hyperarousal. When a child is viewing and hearing violent content, these sensations become “hard wired” and it becomes difficult for a child to tell what is virtual from what is real. Termed Game Transfer Phenomen (GTP), the developing brain transfers visual, auditory and body felt experiences from the virual into the real world, as well as automatic mental processes, actions and behaviors. I’ve frequently witnessed children “acting out” behaviors endemic in video games e.g. boys “humping” girls on the playground who when questioned what they were doing said “I don’t know, I saw it in GTA 5”, or engaging in ‘video game speak’ saying “I’m going to cut your head off”. One child I assessed for asocial behaviour who had not engaged in any dyad communication with students or staff, repetitively stated “I’m Spiderman, my name is Peter Parker”. Children that I’ve worked with in schools tell me they frequently “game” (in their heads) while the teacher is talking to climb the levels in their favorite videogame. It’s not just visual and auditory systems that are disrupted with excessive violent content, one K student I was asked to assess for violent outbursts, had fixed and dilated pupils indicting sympathic charged state with involvement of his endrocrine systems as well. This particular student told me he regularly played Grand Theft Auto and was “playing” at time of my interview.
Violent media content could result in a form of trauma that might lead to PTSD in some individuals. Imagine walking down a school hallway or trying to go to sleep and having your brain replay scenes from a violent videogame, movie or pornography. The child’s brain hears things that aren’t real and sees things that at first could be quite alarming, until such time as the child figures out that it’s actually a replay of a video game. An adult who gamed as a child emailed me the following statement “I can attest to dedicating a significant amount of grey matter to sights, sounds, maps and strategies that I wish I could forget. I had cortisol daymares (usually falling asleep) as a small child because I couldn’t locate where the voices were coming from. They haunted me then, but looking back were merely replays I didn’t understand. Thanks for your work on this”. Aren’t all these experiences trauma states? Or some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder??
So how can parents and teachers identify children who are negatively impacted by violent media content, children who can carry or transfer the vitural world into the real world? What follows is 10 red flags that indicate your child may have trauma induced violent behaviour.
- Early, repeated exposure to violent media content for long durations.
- Explosive “out of the blue” violence.
- Night/daymares; sleep disorders.
- Violent speech, behavior, actions.
- Psychosis – sees and hears things that aren’t real.
- Self-harm, suicide risk.
- Fixed, dilated pupils.
- Emotional dysregulation.
- Severe attention deficit.
- No friends, hates school, sucks at everything other that videogames.
So what if we do nothing? What happens when children are exposed to violent media content eariler and earlier, with higher frequency and longer durations. What happens when children cannot “get back” from the virtual world to the real world? The violence we see now will pale in comparison to what we will see in the years to come. We do know that while all gamers are not shooters, pretty much all mass shooters are gamers. What follows are 10 things you can do to bring your child back from the virtual world to what is real and right in front of them. Longer version titled Ten Steps to Unplug Families from Screens is available here.
- Become informed – check out Reconnect Webinars website; contains over 600 research studies.
- Disconnect yourself first – be available to your children.
- Reconnect with your kids – designate “sacred time” screen-free.
- Explore alternative activities to screen time.
- Enhance skill competence and confidence in your kids.
- Ensure engagement in 4 critical factors for child growth and success – movement, touch, human connection, nature.
- Address perceptions of safety – let them go outside and play.
- Create individual roles and jobs – give them chores!
- Schedule balance – between screens and healthy activities.
- Link technology corporations to your community – get Meta, Microsoft, Google etc. to pay for your community’s new playground.
