Laser tag is a popular game enjoyed by numerous children. This game, which could formerly only be played at laser tag facilities, is now available in a portable, two-player mode. Despite its popularity, however, laser tag has several key flaws as a game. The object of the game is detrimental to children, because it encourages violence against peers. The portable game is geared at children as young as three years of age, and thus desensitizes children to violence at increasingly younger ages. The laser tag game is a bad product for children because it encourages and increases aggression, both within the game setting, as well as in children’s day-to-day interactions with others.
“Laser Pursuit Gaming Set” is manufactured by the company “Justkidz”. Included in the game package are two laser pistols that shoot harmless infrared light, and two adjustable sensor belts that are securely fastened around the children’s waists. Each 9X12 inch plastic laser gun is connected to a corresponding sensor belt with a 3-foot long cord (See Figure 1). The 6X9 inch sensor belts emit laser sounds, audio hit sounds, and audio game-terminated sounds (See Figure 2). The player who accurately shoots the opponent nine times first wins the game. Six triple alkaline batteries are required to play. The game is geared toward children ages three and up.
The object of laser tag is to accurately shoot another player with a gun. The more efficiently players shoot, the higher their likelihood of winning. Children playing this game are undergoing operant conditioning, because each time they exhibit accurate aggressive behaviors, they are reinforced with points and audio hit sounds. Such positive reinforcement will increase the number of precise, aggressive behaviors emitted (Skinner, 1971, cited in Siegler, DeLoache, & Eisenber., 2006).
In laser tag, children are expected to shoot real targets, not ducks or faceless “bad guys” on a screen. The targets are peers, tangible children with faces and identities. Day and Ghandour (1984, cited in Adolph, 2006) found that the more realistically children perceive acts of violence, the greater the likelihood of the children to behave aggressively. Boys and girls who viewed news footage of violence in Lebanon were far more likely to exhibit aggressive behaviors than if they had watched a cartoon clip. Additionally, the amount of toy gun play strongly predicts the amount of real aggression exhibited in a non-play environment (Watson & Ying, 1992). By not only viewing the aggression of real laser tag opponents, but also engaging in violent behaviors throughout the game themselves, laser tag gamers are highly likely to behave aggressively outside of a game setting.
Playing laser tag is quite similar to playing with toy guns, because laser pistols act as guns in the context of the game. The only difference between laser pistol-play and toy gun play is that children experience visual and audio feedback each time the gun is fired accurately and opponents are “hit”. Turner and Goldsmith (1976) found that toy gun play increases antisocial behavior among children between four and five years of age. Thus, laser tag is detrimental to young children, because at an age at which they should be learning to build successful relationships with their peers, they are actually becoming antisocial through gaming.
The laser tag game is geared at children ages three and up. If children are playing with laser guns at the tender age of three, such toys may pave the way for them to move on to more violent and potentially dangerous toys and behaviors in the future. By establishing patterns of aggressive behavior through play at age three, such patterns of aggressive play behavior can influence the number of aggressive acts committed in real life at later ages (Johnson et al., 2002, cited in Adolph, 2006). Children who had been identified as aggressive by their peers at eight years of age had more criminal convictions and engaged in more criminal behavior at age thirty than those who had not been identified as aggressive (Eron, Huesmann, Dubow, Romanoff, & Yarmel, 1987, cited in Siegler, et al., 2006). Thus, the playing of laser tag may affect the aggressiveness of children years after they have stopped playing the game.
Laser tag encourages instrumental aggression, or behavior aimed at harming others that is motivated by the desire to obtain a concrete goal (Siegler, et al., 2006). The concrete goal is winning, and the means to achieve the goal is the accurate firing of a weapon at children on another team. Because aggression may lead to the achievement of the goal of winning, children who play laser tag may use aggression in other areas of their lives to achieve different goals (Johnson et al., 2002, cited in Adolph, 2006).
Anderson and Bushman (2001, cited in Siegler, et al., 2006) found that a clear trajectory exists between the playing of violent video games and the physical aggressive acts of children. Children enjoy playing such video games, and play the games more and more often. As a result, children’s increasing skill leads to greater enjoyment of violent games, and children become desensitized to aggression in other contexts because of prolonged exposure to the violence in such games. They become less empathic, and more aggressive with their peers. Though laser tag is not a video game, it simulates the violence to which children are exposed in video games in a reality setting with actual enemies. Children who play laser tag are likely to follow the aforementioned steps to increased aggression and desensitization to violence because laser tag encompasses the same goals as violent video games- the destruction of the “bad guys”.
Media violence has a great impact on children’s aggression as well (Anderson, et al., cited in Siegler, et al., 2006). Viewing aggression increases the frequency of aggressive thoughts, feelings, and tendencies in viewers. This heightened aggressive mindset makes it more likely that the individual will interpret new events as involving aggression and will respond aggressively. By committing actual aggressive acts through play, laser tag gamers should logically experience greater aggressive thoughts and feelings, because rather than passively viewing violence, they are actively engaging in violent behavior through play. Additionally, when aggressive-related thoughts are frequently activated, they may become part of children’s internal states (Anderson, et al., cited in Siegler, et al., 2006). If mere aggressive thoughts lead to internal changes within children, aggressive actions should establish greater, longer-lasting changes in the aggression of children.
Laser tag is detrimental to children because it increases their aggression both within and outside of the game context. The object of the game is not a healthy one, and the target age of potential users is much too young. As an alternative to laser tag, children can play other interactive games, such as tag and catch, but without the inclusion of aggression and toy guns. Information about the potential risks of laser tag and other aggressive games should be made public, so that parents can make informed decisions about the products they permit their children to use.
References
Adolph, K. E. (2006, November). Aggression, TV, and imitation. Lecture presented to the Developmental Psychology course, New York University, New York.
Siegler, R, DeLoache, J, & Eisenberg, N. (2006). How children develop (2nd ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.
Turner, C, & Goldsmith, D. (1976). Effects of toy guns and airplanes on children’s antisocial free play behavior. Journal of Experiemental Child Psychology 21, 303-315.
Watson, M, & Peng, Y. (1992). The relation between toy gun play and children’s aggressive behavior. Early Education and Development 3, 370-389.
