I do think violent video games are bad for kids

[loinburger]

I didn't play many video games growing up (especially until Wolfenstein came out), and the ones I did play weren't particularly realistic (Raid Over Moscow never gave me the urge to, say, bomb Moscow, because I realized that Moscow probably wasn't quite that pixellated in real life).

The game I played most often growing up was "Guns." It consisted of me and some of the other neighborhood kids having mock wars with plastic guns. The typical penalty for being shot was that you'd be frozen for twenty seconds, which gave a major tactical advantage to the other side. The second most popular game was "G.I. Joe," in which me and the other neighborhood kids would set up mock battles with our G.I. Joe figures, vehicles, and playsets (or "fortresses").

In other words, I didn't need video games to play ultra-violent games as a kid. All I needed was my imagination. If you'd taken away my plastic guns and my plastic G.I. Joe's in order to "help" me, then I'd probably have whittled my own gun out of wood and gone right back to playing Guns.

[Giancarlo]

I am a teenager, and I play video games. Got a problem with that? I like Allied Assault where i can drive a tank through Berlin and blow up other things.

So what?

For kids who can't make the difference between reality and fantasy, shouldn't be playing any games. Period.

Kids younger my age can also play them if they know the difference between reality and fantasy.

[Urban Ranger]

Gotta be bad, look at Fez.

[Odin]

Video Games are good for children because it builds thier eye-hand coordination. I think kids can play violent games if the storyline gives a realistic reason for the violence. Wolfenstien 3-D, the origional 1st person shooter has you as a POW in Nazi prison. you have a reason to shoot those soldiers. In Grand theft Auto you are killing for the fun of it and for criminal reasons, thats why that game is bad.

[Jaguar]

Video games can't cause violence by themselves. But they help.

[RGBVideo]

Depends, how do you define 'violent'? Playing Serious Sam = Wasted time = Negative impact.
Playing MOO2 = Positive impact. IMHO.

[Kontiki]

I'd say a slight negative impact, only because young children are very impressionable and anything that is especially violent can have some negative consequences. However, this should be mitigated by proper parenting and a decent education, whereby kids learn that the computer violence isn't real and shouldn't be imitated in real life. Unfortunately, what should happen doesn't always occur.

[Dis]

There was a day when sports improved hand-eye coordination.

If computer games did that, why are computer geeks so uncoordinated?

And again I stress the difference between tennagers and children. As a teen I didn't want to be called a child, and you shouldn't call them children either.

A 7 year old kid playing Soldier of Fortune2 I have problems with. Well really I have problems with their parents not the kid. Parents just don't raise their children properly.

Obviously I hate to see the goverment involved. The goverment sucks! : . I wish parents would take the time to learn what kinds of games their kids are playing and explain to them that in real life that is not acceptable beharviour etc.etc.

[Sava]

There's not a damn shred of proof that says video games make people violent. In fact, there's about ten thousand years of human history that say humans are violent regardless of video games.

It's the parents' responsiblity to say what their kids can or can't do. These stupid social conservatives have no right playing parent to the entire country.

Actually, I think its good to expose children to the reality of violence and sex. That way they are used to it and not surprised or shocked by things that they learn in adulthood. Sheltering children from reality is not good. That's why so many Americans are pounding the war drums. They don't understand the reality of war and think that its clean and simple. That's why veterans and those who know the horrors of war are the ones who don't want to jump into such matters.

Being exposed to the horrors of violence and the reality of sex gives people a greater appreciation of the importance and seriousness of both. If you want to prevent your kids from playing violent games, that's fine... you do that. But the government does not have the right interfere in this matter.

[Giancarlo]

This is one of the few times I have to agree with Sava.

A video game does not make people violent.

I have seen violence in the streets before... I have watched the news and saw people get shot to death by the police here a year ago when De La Rua was thrown out of office... the reality is best not to be hidden because the future generations will not learn why it is bad.

Video games should not be banned or even censored.

Maybe if parents don't want their kids to play violent games, they should talk with the kids about the reality instead of covering what it really is.

[Dis]

actually there is evidence that says violent video games affect kids.

[Giancarlo]

Originally posted by Dissident
actually there is evidence that says violent video games affect kids.

That evidence doesn't prove anything. Infact I wouldn't even call it evidence, none less than an assumptions done by some watchdog group.

[Shi Huangdi]

I think Fez is a good example of the dangers of what violent video games can do to children.

[SKILORD]

This poll is posted on a fansite for a videogame.

[GePap]

A few things: the type of violence in the game matters: realism increases the effects on the psyche. In MOO2, in theory, I could blow up entire planets and commit mass genocide, but the violence is very abstracted, and the fact is that i will never have the ability to control a multi-system star empire and the ability to play out the game. Some of the current class of video games feature explicit vilence of the 'realistic sort', such as Grand Theft Auto 3 or Vice city where you commit theft, rae, murder and so forth.

Now, I think that console games are getting more violent because the demographics have changed and the playing audience is now mostly men in their 20's, not little kids, so it makes bussiness sense to make more adult games. That stores fail to warn parents is not the fault of game makers, but stores, which have a reason to seel to kids, profit.

Now, as for the effects of violent games. By themselves they have no effect, I believe. But they can have a cumulitive effect on children with other problems at home and at school. They help fill voids left by the lack of better role models from parents and educators. Which means that the 'solution' lies not with confronting the video games but presenting positive influences.