In the life of a game designer one of the roughest critics ever seen has been the national media and dealing with the effects of violence in games and their effect on children. Since the early nineties everyone from news agencies and church groups has been on the offensive towards violence and aggression of video games. Everyone seems to want to push their opinion on the topic across on some of the most trivial matters; even members of the White House stated that violence, both sexual and physical, from the youth of the time could be attributed back to video games or other violent entertainment sources. Parents are mostly at fault due to the lack of guidance they …show more content…
If a video game has even the slightest sex appeal the women’s front will take the game and try to state that the sex in the game could push a child to thoughts or acts of sexual harassment and even rape. Or even if the games main character seems to be African American and shows those committing gang related activities racial activists jump on board and cry out about stereotypes. No one bothers to state that the parents are not stepping up to their responsibility as parents and teaching their children the difference of right and wrong when it comes to that subject. After the Electronic Arts title Mass Effect came out, a psychologist ripped the game apart, from the sex side, and pushed her views that it will lead children to try to act out the selective, not to mention difficult to obtain, scenes of the game. Even major names in the game industry attempted to refute this bogus notion, but came to a brick wall due to national boards and governments resulting in a censoring of some of the major portions of the game which did not even have to do with the game. There has been little proof of anyone acting out something they have done in a game except for the child from St. Petersburg, Florida, who stole his mother’s van to attempt to react what he was doing in Grand Theft Auto because it was fun. Even in this situation the …show more content…
No matter what the child does be it play video games, watch and follow sports heroes, read a lot of books, or even watch a lot of movies, the parent should center their child’s focus on some type of role model that will allow them to learn the wrong from right and fantasy from reality. The issue shouldn’t be the effects of violence in video games but the lack of guidance from the parents. A child can become violent and aggressive due to just his surroundings, their parent’s actions, or even a book he is reading, it’s not just video games. Due to video games being a major media outlet it is pushed to the forefront of the battle instead of its cousins like books and