Video games and violence
Joseph Adam Sujka |
Posted October 22, 2005
Ever feel like you are going in circles?
The relationship between video games and teen violence seems to come up every once in a while and spout the same ideas about teens and how violent we are. Another cookie-cutter article appeared Sept. 18, not purporting answers but just stirring the pot.
That is not what this is about, though. This is about video games and violence. The bottom line, no matter how you look at it, is that parents need to monitor what their kids are buying and doing.
Video games have labels telling what the content of the game is. There is even another label on the back telling what things are in the game that garnered it that rating. Things on the back include, "cartoon violence, mild language, sexual situations."
There are tools out there to make it so that parents can parent, but most would rather blame the video-game companies rather than their lack of interest in what their kids do.
This circular reasoning by adults in this country has gone too far. In the past, for instance, if a child was playing king of the mountain on a pile of gravel and he or she fell and got hurt, the parents would reprimand the child for not being safe.
Today, the parents would sue the owner of the pile for damages and hospital bills for their children. This is the same situation in regards to video-game companies. Rather than monitoring what their children do, parents would rather blame video games and their content and not take responsibility for their actions.
It does not matter if video games cause violence in children because even if they do, the result will still be the same. Parents will have to monitor what they buy or let their children buy and video-game stores will have to be very stringent on what games they sell to what people.
The whole argument is at its core an excuse for parents to not be parents, and the responsibility needs to lie squarely on the shoulders of parents rather than video-game companies.
Joseph Adam Sujka |
Posted October 22, 2005
Ever feel like you are going in circles?
The relationship between video games and teen violence seems to come up every once in a while and spout the same ideas about teens and how violent we are. Another cookie-cutter article appeared Sept. 18, not purporting answers but just stirring the pot.
That is not what this is about, though. This is about video games and violence. The bottom line, no matter how you look at it, is that parents need to monitor what their kids are buying and doing.
Video games have labels telling what the content of the game is. There is even another label on the back telling what things are in the game that garnered it that rating. Things on the back include, "cartoon violence, mild language, sexual situations."
There are tools out there to make it so that parents can parent, but most would rather blame the video-game companies rather than their lack of interest in what their kids do.
This circular reasoning by adults in this country has gone too far. In the past, for instance, if a child was playing king of the mountain on a pile of gravel and he or she fell and got hurt, the parents would reprimand the child for not being safe.
Today, the parents would sue the owner of the pile for damages and hospital bills for their children. This is the same situation in regards to video-game companies. Rather than monitoring what their children do, parents would rather blame video games and their content and not take responsibility for their actions.
It does not matter if video games cause violence in children because even if they do, the result will still be the same. Parents will have to monitor what they buy or let their children buy and video-game stores will have to be very stringent on what games they sell to what people.
The whole argument is at its core an excuse for parents to not be parents, and the responsibility needs to lie squarely on the shoulders of parents rather than video-game companies.
