The Navasota Examiner - Video Violence And Youth
Video Violence And Youth
An Op-Ed by Chris Bell in The Navasota Examiner
June 01, 2005
It's 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Do you know what your kids are doing?
If you have a boy, chances are he is playing a video game. A staggering 85 percent of American boys make playing video games part of their daily routine, and they ain't playing Pong.
In any of the popular Grand Theft Auto video game series, the player can beat up old ladies, steal cars, murder police officers, run over pedestrians, pick up prostitutes, and then stomp them to death.
But that's not even the worst one. On the 41st anniversary of the assassination of President. John F. Kennedy, a European software company released JFK: Re-loaded, a video game in which the player plots and carries out the assassination of President Kennedy.
Any kid with a credit card can have these vicarious experiences by downloading the video game off the Internet, buying it from an online retailer or renting it at the neighborhood video store - most of the time with no questions asked. And all evidence suggests that video games are becoming an increasingly popular part of our culture. In 2004, the combined sales of video games earned $17.1 billion, far more than the $9.4 billion that Americans spent at the box office that year.
John Naisbitt's "High Tech, High Touch," a book lauded by conservative pundits, paints a bleak picture about what violent video games are doing to our kids. He cites the American Academy of Pediatrics in claiming that almost 1,000 studies have confirmed a correlation between aggressive behavior in children and media violence.
One such study in 2000 published by the American Psychological Association's journal found that violent video games can enhance aggressive behavior in already aggressive boys, can lead to lower grades in college, and pose perhaps a greater danger than exposure to violent television shows or movies.
But it doesn't take a Ph.D. to have the moral courage to say that these games are disgusting. This isn't about Democrats and Republicans, but about right and wrong. Violent and sexually explicit video games are part of the avalanche of garbage burying our kids, and it's long past time for our elected officials to grab some shovels and help parents dig their kids out.
Illinois' Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich called for criminal penalties to those who sell and rent violent and sexually explicit video games to kids, and a bipartisan coalition in the statehouse passed his bill.
Here in Texas, Dallas Republican Tony Goolsby introduced HB 1433, which would make it a Class B misdemeanor to sell or rent these games to kids. But any hope for progress died in the Legislature when the House Business & Industry Committee failed to send HB 1433 to the House floor by the deadline. Sadly, Rick Perry showed no leadership on the issue and, to my knowledge, has never said a public word about the issue.
If you're a parent and see nothing wrong with your kids playing these games, great. But that decision should be made by you, not by a video store clerk.
I'm a parent of two small boys. I want them doing their homework, playing baseball, and working on magic tricks, not recreating the assassination of a President. And I think parents in Texas deserve a Governor with enough moral courage to do something about it.
http://www.chrisbell.com/insights/violent_video_games