VIDEOGAMES IMPACT AND SOCIAL LEARNING IN CHILDRENS� LIVES. FROM THE BOBO CLOWN EXPERIMENT TO MODERN VIRTUAL WORLDS

This paper aims to discuss and analyze through content analysis and using the theoretical support available regarding social learning, about how many situations in a child�s life can impact his behavior, sometimes irreversibly. It is imperative to acknowledge how certain actions that we as adults conduct can affect children in general. We will discuss how Albert Bandura�s experiment involving the Bobo Clown doll revealed some troubling aspects that people should be aware of, how Jean Piaget assesses children�s behavior that acquire certain other behaviors that they see at their parents, especially regarding, for example, certain jobs, such as teacher, firefighter, doctor and so on. It is also important to analyze how modern times involving modern technologies that contain certain software such as violent videogames or non-violent videogames that contain a toxic player base that can propagate cyberbullying through chatting, either textually or verbally. All these behaviors can, unfortunately, irreversibly affect a child�s harmonious development, both psychologically as well as emotionally. This discrepancy can certainly perpetuate the future adult life of a present child and can go as far as spread this toxic behavior to other friends, acquaintances, family members and even future children and/or partners. Virtual liberty poses as a double edged sword, that can easily ,,cut� deeply in a person�s life, so unnoticed, but so dangerously. This article proposes to take a deeper look into these phenomena, constructing a base that starts early historically, and up until this day.