I love violent video games… I admit it. I love them. I giggle with joy when I smash an enemy up against a wall repeatedly until he’s no longer alive and get a rush when I hack someone to pieces and the blood sprays everywhere like a fireworks display. I just… like it… I myself am NOT a violent person. I’ve never beaten someone up (unless you count the 4th grade incident when I *pushed* a 1st grader down after he followed me for several blocks calling me fat) and have otherwise never engaged in what we might consider “violent behavior”…virtual worlds not withstanding. My son and daughter have both watched me play violent video games and have taken their own stab at trying some. Now, I’ll admit there are some games I do not let my 7 year old son watch… like Silent Hill. But honestly, it’s not because of the violence, rather I’m worried he’ll have nightmares just over the general content of the game; hell, sometimes even I have nightmares. I’m NOT worried about them turning into violent monsters in the least. As a matter of fact, my son, at Tae Kwon Do class, still cowers when they are faux sparring. Neither he nor my daughter have ever gotten into school fights and they’ve never lashed out physically at us either. I attribute this to two things: first I’m an active parent and engage my children in everything they do. I AM big brother watching and I know what they’re doing and when they’re doing it. IF something seems out of line then we talk about it and I don’t dumb it down for them either. Second, they are well aware of the boundaries between fake and real when it comes to violence and especially video game violence. Yes you can run someone through in a video game with a sword and there’s no negative consequences but if you do it in real life then they are not going to bounce right back up. Why do they know this? Well first off because violence in my house isn’t a mystery. I don’t sugar coat it for them. I don’t shield them. I don’t bulk at it. Video game violence in my house is simply a non-issue.
I bring this up because over the course of the next couple of weeks we’re going to see some history unfold around us concerning violent video games. You can read all the details here: http://ag.ca.gov/cms_attachments/press/pdfs/n1742_videogameviolence.pdf
If you want a little more background you can also check out Kotaku’s well written article here: http://kotaku.com/5522469/
I know I’ll be watching this with great interest to see what happens. I know there are going to be a lot of people watching. What disturbs me greatly is that we’re still on this kick about how violent video games are harmful to children. The problem with saying this is that there has never been any conclusive evidence that video games have a negative effect on children. Never. Oh…they’ve tried. They’ve spun data. Weaved tales. But in the end, if you really look at what the data is saying, they’ve got absolutely nothing.
In addition:
"The State fails to explain how to determine what constitutes prohibited violence against an "image of a human being," or why minors should be shielded from depictions of violence against an image of a human being rather than depictions of violence against a zombie, god, robot, or any other fantastical creature. The State's proposal to treat depictions of simulated violence as obscenity has no stopping point.”
I’m not surprised. Violence is culturally constructed and even then our own individual experiences play into that construct making the matter even more complicated. They can’t even agree on what constitutes “violence” in the fantasy context. Is it really violent to beat the living snot out of a twisted undead nurse who vaguely resembles a human because she’s about to beat the snot out of you? I actually know the answer to this because I did research on this very thing several years ago.
I think that we are making a mistake to make violence black and white. There is absolutely no black or white in violence and our comprehension of it; especially when it comes to violence in a virtual setting There are only shades of muted hues of gray.
I love how we’re singling out video games and not putting a lock down on violent movies, or music with violent lyrics or hell…let’s go ahead and start putting a lock down on books that are violent! We single out video games because they’re immersive? Because they’re realistic (I know when I played Darksiders I totally knew that one day I’ll be my chance to beat off angels and demonic underlyings because I most certainly will become one of the four horsemen…one day)? Because kids would rather play them than watch TV or movies now? Or is it because we as a society need the next great scapegoat to blame our shortcomings on? I don’t think it takes a genius to answer that question…
Note: While this is personal opinion taken to its strongest as I feel deeply passionate about it, if you want to see the data to back it up and more objective academic writing, feel free to shoot me and email as I can provide you with the actual research.
