kidsplayinggungameThis past week on Penn and teller’s show, “Penn and Teller: Bullsh*t” they tackled the topic of video games, and namely video game violence. Now, I’ve dabbled in my own research dissecting violence in video games and their effect on the youth from a strictly ethical point of view (no psychology or any other brain rape involved) and it all came down to a small number of children not being able to tell the difference between real life and fantasy… Either that or negligent parents who provide their kids with M rated games at the age of 10 (more on this later).

In this episode, Penn and Teller (I still don’t understand why a show that revolves around debate and speech has half their talent being a mute) talk about the huge amounts of revenue flowing in from video games, the wave of violent crimes depicting video game copying and those deemed to stop them (Jack Thompson, Hillary Clinton, and some guy with a balding pony tail) but also take the reverse approach and provide a 9 year old gamer with a real assault rifle… how can it go wrong? The 28 minute video begins by making a strong comparison, video game violence to us is like three stooges violence to our parents, makes sense already doesn’t it? With every generation there comes a form of entertainment (or violence) the generation before doesn’t quite understand, while three stooges rarely ever dealt with guns or murder, I peg this as just the progression of the times, desensitization from the news, and newer technologies taking precedence.

Don’t get me wrong, a slap to the back of the head is a lot better than a gunshot to the gut, but the generations before didn’t have this type of technology, if they did, perhaps this wouldn’t be as big an issue as it is now (and I fear to think what our kids will be looking at as entertainment in the future if we’re ok with virtual violence). While a number of critics might think Penn and Teller’s show is indeed, BullSh*t, they did raise a number of important points. Almost every single study into video game violence on youth (both pro and con for video games) is completely bias and agenda driven. This can be seen from both sides throughout the show and based on papers I have researched in the past. Secondly, just because one enjoys violent games, doesn’t mean they enjoy violence. I mean… it COULD mean that… but it doesn’t always mean that. This was shown in the half hour show by allowing a sweet innocent game playing 9 year old shoot a rifle… ONCE… and that lead him to tears on national television. The third point this show left me with was their last, if video games had been around for generations, and football was all of a sudden introduced to the world; what would we think about football? A violent sport in which physical contact and taking one down are requisites to the game, and which by the way, have relatively high injury rates compared to oh… I don’t know, video games?  Aside of course, from a pulled muscle playing Dance Dance Revolution or a sore thumb after a night of gaming).

This cannot end well...

This cannot end well...

Overall I think video game violence issues fall into five broad categories:

1)      Children who don’t have the mental capacity to tell the difference between fantasy and reality.

2)      Negligent parents who ignore the ESRB ratings on boxes and don’t pay attention to what their kids play (Hey… I was one of these kids).

3)      Game stores selling M rated games to minors; if you can’t buy cigarettes, alcohol, or adult rated videos and magazines under age, why should you be able to buy adult rated games?

4)      People who use video games as scapegoats for their violent acts (like the guy in the UK who blamed Grand Theft Auto as the reason he stabbed a man to steal his sneakers… there aren’t any sneakers in GTA!).

5)      And finally, the generally deranged.

Should these games be discontinued? Should they be banned? Is it the developers fault or the parents? Does legal ramification come into play when dealing with ESRB ratings? I know how I feel about the topic (parents and game stores should be the ones you point fingers at, not the game companies or the people playing them), how do you feel? I welcome to virtual floor to debate, praise, or hate mail. After all, it’s just entertainment, no one gets up in a huff when kids watch violent movies (Power Rangers ring a bell?).

Rant over.






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