giant facepalm.
Gee this debate has been goin on as long as i can remember, at least since the original NES in my childhood, Doom, castle wolfenstein on pc then Senate inquires into such violent games as mortal kombat in the 90's.
"One of the most common criticisms of video games is that they allegedly increase violent tendencies among youth.[8][9][10] However, several major studies by groups such as The Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health, The Journal of Adolescent Health, and The British Medical Journal have shown no conclusive link between video game usage and violent activity."[11][12][13] One study did find an increase in reports of bullying, noting, "Our research found that certain patterns of video game play were much more likely to be associated with these types of behavioral problems than with major violent crime such as school shootings.[11][12] One of the first widely accepted controversial video games was developer Exidy's 1976 title Death Race, in which players controlled cars that ran over pixelated representations of "gremlins". The game caused such an outcry that it was pulled from store shelves and profiled on 60 Minutes. Long Island PTA president Ronnie Lamm pushed for legislation in the early 1980s to place restrictions on how close video game arcades could be to schools, asserting that they caused children to fight.[14] Portrayals of violence allegedly became more realistic with time, and so politicians such as U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman conducted hearings during the 1990s regarding what he referred to as "violent video games" which, in his opinion, included such games as Mortal Kombat.
"Some researchers believe that while playing violent video games leads to violent actions, there are also biological influences that impact a person's choices. According to Sean P. Neubert of Rochester Institute of Technology, a person who is biologically predisposed to aggression will be more strongly influenced by violent scenes and thus will have a greater risk for carrying out destructive actions. For example someone with Antisocial personality disorder, like Charles Manson, has a greater risk of going out and shooting someone after playing hours of Grand Theft Auto or a game of a similar nature. By exposing someone to violence who is already predisposed to lack a sense of judgment and be reclusive is like turning on a switch and giving them the fuel to go out and perform dangerous acts of violence on themselves and others around them"
This is an old debate and will continue for along time with no end in sight and I agree with Billy Victory, video games are an easy scapegoat for social ills and lack of parental supervision and just a symptom of worse underlying cause, Bugs Bunny was violent too, ban cartoons?
Personally I dont care anymore about public censorship of games or other media, it should be the responsibility of the parent or guardian to do whats best for their children. Let's move on to the rise in Childhood Obesity, that is a worse crime in my opinion and a form of child abuse and neglect, really a 5 year old should not have adult health problems.
