Why do people insist on banning violent video game sales to minors when they can just walk into a PUBLIC library and rent gory pornographic movies?

because parents are lazy and dont want to blame their childrens future downfalls of their own horrible parenting.

a generalization, i know, but its true.

I've got to agree to an extent, perhaps parents have more faith in their children than they probably should have. I think I'm going to write a blog entry about this in my shiny new LQ blog that doesn't seem to be working as it should

Gory pornographic movies??? LOL. Viewing five minutes of american TV has just as much violence as any game, if not more But, What is more important than the violence is the context in which that violence is taking place.

And that IS the problem, too many games and tv shows/movies show graphic violence in the wrong context. They show violent killings with gore splattering all over the place, and than ask why kids today are messed up. Does that make sense to you? Sure a little violence in games is fine, but limit the blood and context.

I think that violence on tv and games has gone to far. It may not be a big deal to us anymore because we have gotten used to it. And the more violence on tv's and games the more in the real world. There are 20 times more prisons built now then 50 years ago.

I don't think thats really a relevant statistic. You have no proof that violence in tv and games is related at all. You just have numbers that don't mean anything.

Example, heres a real statistic.

Areas that have more churches per square mile have more murders.

Now do the churches have anything to with this? No. The area is just simply more populated, so ofcourse the chances of murder are going to increase. You have no concrete connection.

If art imitates life, let me pose this question to you.

Would there even be violence on t.v., if there was no violence in real life?

I don't agree with this either, think of how many more people there are now than 50 years ago, also I recently read a statistic that says that teen violence had decreased by half since 1980.

I believe the same standards should be applied to both, and TV as well. If you ban one, ban them all.

What is the proper context for violence ?

You see Discovery Channel showing you how missiles are fired and innocently telling you how do they function, but Al-Jazeera shows you where they fall. With the love for so-called "real TV" on much of the western world (and perhaps the rest of the world), why not feed on it too?

I think violence in TV is more dangerous than video games. At least with video games we feel some adrenaline and it may be even beneficial (there are reports on its use on kids with cancer and other terminal diseases), but TV builds a shield with the outside world that feeds you thought-patterns and "acceptable" ways of behaviour. It's 100% passive.

You can't bring down violence with statistics and it's impossible when those that try can't feel the whole culture around violence.

There's so many double standards too. I'm sure everyone knows about that "sex hack" in grand theft auto. The entire game has you running around murdering, mugging, dealing drugs, etc etc, but throwing some sex in is "going too far."

Also, you can show someone murder someone on TV, but God forbid someone says the "F" word.

It just doesn't add up.

I don't think that violence on tv and video games is necessarily bad - just the context in which it is presented. when you show someone killing somebody else, with gore flying all over the place, it has an effect on every one of us. For most people, it doesn't really affect us all that much, but for people that already have something loose, it "may" cause them to snap.



"God loves us, that's why he made Linux"

Let me get something straight....I like violence, blood, gore, etc in my games. I'm a fan of HL2 and Doom3. However, games, just like tv (in america, at least) have ratings. The ESRB ratings for games is kind of like the ratings for tv and movies....If parents want to blame the games/movies/tv....well......why are they ignoring the ratings and letting their children watch this stuff?

I do agree that the context matters greatly, but as with all things nowadays, there is no reason for the parents to blame anything or anyone but themselves. Sorry, and I'm not trying to start a flame war, but I think that people should use their heads sometimes. Just my two cents.

I think that tv and media have some control over the way we act, vote, think, etc. I believe that if we had no violent or liberal left TV and games. We would not have so much violence. There have been many studies like that below


Adolescents who watch more than three hours of TV daily are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior as adults, a new study says.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/...s.tv.violence/

American children watch an average of three to fours hours of television daily. Television can be a powerful influence in developing value systems and shaping behavior. Unfortunately, much of today's television programming is violent. Hundreds of studies of the effects of TV violence on children and teenagers have found that children may:

* become "immune" to the horror of violence
* gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems
* imitate the violence they observe on television; and
* identify with certain characters, victims and/or victimizers

Extensive viewing of television violence by children causes greater aggressiveness. Sometimes, watching a single violent program can increase aggressiveness. Children who view shows in which violence is very realistic, frequently repeated or unpunished, are more likely to imitate what they see. Children with emotional, behavioral, learning or impulse control problems may be more easily influenced by TV violence. The impact of TV violence may be immediately evident in the child's behavior or may surface years later, and young people can even be affected when the family atmosphere shows no tendency toward violence.

http://www.aacap.org/publications/factsfam/violence.htm




In today's society violent acts occur commonly that can be linked to television or

movies. In December of 1993 a young ten year old child after watching an episode of

Beavis and Butthead went into his two year old sisters room and lit her baby crib on fire.

This not only burnt the house down , gave the ten year old kid serious third degree burns,

but also killed the two year old baby by burning to death(8). Also in October of 1993

after watching a movie intitled " The Program " a handful of college kids mimicking a

scene from the movie laid down in the middle of a busy intersection and dodged traffic.

This little sheraid killed two of the kids, gave another two serious injuries which put them

in the critical care unit of the hospital for a month before recovering , and gave one

student a fractured collar bone and multiple fractured ribs(15). Because of these two

incidents and many more television violence has been brought to the attention of the

citizens of the world. It has also grabbed the attention of the United States government.

[QUOTE=Envision5000]I think that tv and media have some control over the way we act, vote, think, etc. I believe that if we had no violent or liberal left TV and games. We would not have so much violence. There have been many studies like that below[QUOTE]

Not true, violent crime in teens has gone down by half since 1980.(government statistic)

I think that the Government has no place in controlling game content - I think that the game manufacturers need to take responsibility and do it themselves.


As for it affecting childrens minds and behavior, there are just as many credible studies that say exactly the opposite. I tend to aggree with the ones that support the theory, but only to a point. I think that depending on age and maturity level, certain levels of violence won't affect you. Very graphic violence however, does have some level of effect on all of us, and for people that are already close to the edge, may make them snap.