I usually have to wait until I'm home alone or it's really late at night before I can play any video games. That's due to the fact I have an impressionable six-year-old daughter as well as a predilection for games that feature quite graphic violence. And as a parent, I certainly don't want her exposed to the levels of violence that, as a gamer, make me squeal with maniacal glee.
So you can see why I'm in a bit of a moral quandary when it comes to the subject of violence in video games. On the one hand, I'm a responsible parent who wants to make sure my children don't become desensitized to violence, and on the other I'm a total gamer who loves to shoot things, hit them with swords and blow them up in unusual ways - sometimes at the same time! So am I a hypocrite for both guarding against, yet simultaneously embracing violent games? And are violent video games really that bad? Actually, I don't think so.
You see, video games that feature violence - from the martial arts kicks in Mortal Kombat, to shooting alien zombies in Doom - have become the new "bad influence" on our youth, once attributed to other vile and Satanic things like rock music and Mad magazine. Too often recently I've read news reports blaming video games for children's anti-social behaviours from skipping school to the unfortunate and now-famous shootings in Columbine. But if you take a look back at history, you'll find society has always found something "those crazy kids" are doing on which to heap responsibility for its own ills.
My favourite example of how this type of thinking gets out of hand is Bugs Bunny. As a kid, Bugs was one of my most-watched cartoons. I loved it all, from every "Ehhh, What's up doc?" to every puff of smoke when the Coyote hit the ground. Unfortunately a lot of zealots masquerading as concerned adults thought Bugs was a little too violent, and the networks have since censored the cartoons. Go ahead and check. You'll find they've taken out most of the cartoon gun blasts, explosions et al, for the sake of "the children." I don't know about any of you, but I was raised on Bugs Bunny, and I have never, ever had the urge to drop an anvil on anyone's head or use an Acme giant magnet for some nefarious plan.
In the '50s they brought horror comic book publishers into a senate committee because the comics were being blamed for juvenile delinquency. One publisher summed up industry thoughts by asking, "Are our children so feeble-minded that seeing someone stab another in a comic will compel them to so the same?"
Sure games are more interactive, and their repetitious nature does influence learning, but if a child has a proper moral base, shouldn't he know the difference between fantasy violence and the real deal?
In the end, I don't think the games make children violent, but rather they attract those types with behavioural problems, as well as the rest of us, ahem, normal people.
My kids will see and play those games if they wish, but only when they reach an age where they can make those distinctions. Kids are smart.
In the meantime, I'd like to see a little less blame placed on violent games. Or I'll find and kill you all!
