This is something that is constantly up my craw. "The violent video game generation", "He was mimicking a video game for the murders.", "Grand Theft Auto is a tool that teaches children to pickup hookers and beat up old ladies." Come on people. I have been playing violent video games my whole life, and I have never had the urge to go out and kill someone after playing them. In fact I find them extremely cathartic, when I am blowing someone's head off in Medal of Honor, or beating up a hooker for cash in GTA it is such over the top violence it is almost comedic and it relieves pressure.
Lets examine one of the Groups against video games MAVAV. This is a quote directly from their web site:
" Video game addiction is without a doubt, becoming this century's most increasingly worrisome epidemic, comparable even to drug and alcohol abuse. All the while, the video game industry continues to market and promote hatred, racism, sexism, and the most disturbing trend: clans and guilds, an underground video game phenomenon which closely resembles gangs."
REALLY??? are you fucking kidding me. I can only assume they are referring to Guilds in MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. I belong to a guild in WOW and believe me the closest it comes to a gang is when a member of the guild accidently takes to much allergy medicine and gets a bit tweaked. The members of my guild are mostly guys in their 20's and some people under 18 that just enjoy playing a game with other people. That is it. It is more like a virtual social club then a gang.
I will grant MAVAV this, there are kids that become addicted to video games, and there are violent acts that occur in the world, but if you look at the facts they are usually mutually exclusive. I am sure the president of Sudan did not get the idea for genocide from playing too much Quake. I am also pretty sure the death squads in Darfur have never played even one level of Unreal Tournament. How does MAVAV explain the whole Nazi Germany thing, there weren't even video games around back then?
If your kid becomes addicted to video games I have this simple advice for you. Try being a fucking parent instead of one of these weak minded, wishy washy, wanna be parents that think kids should find their own way. Let me break it down for you, kids are stupid, I know I was. They need direction in their lives. If they are playing video games too much and not doing well in school; TAKE THE GODDAMN VIDEO GAMES AWAY. You have a 12 year old that wants to buy a Mature game (and all the games are rated for you morons) like Grand Theft Auto 4; TELL HIM NO. Give your kids guidance and they will usually grow up fine. Leave them to their own devices and they are going to be fucked up. That's it; there is no secret recipe to raising a good kid, but by not being involved, you are pretty much guaranteed you are going to raise a prick.
So instead of blaming the Columbine shootings and gang violence on video games; let's examine the real root cause of the problem "bad parenting". Love your kids; give them a kiss every night and tell them they are loved and treasured. Don't just ignore them; good parents know their kids and can see warning signs when something isn't quite right. Oh and kids are not entitled to privacy, (to the chagrin of many of you pedicured, pampered ignorant parents that see their kids as more of an inconvenience then a gift). If something seems weird search their room, call their friends mom, do your parental duty. You aren't their friend you are their friggin' parent asshole.