One of the best-selling video games of 2004, Grand Theft ...



Protect children from violent video games

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One of the best-selling video games of 2004, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, lets players control a character called CJ, who has just returned home to the fictional town of Los Santos to avenge his mother’s murder and resurrect his once powerful street gang. To make money, CJ robs people, which often involves punching and kicking his victims until they are lying dead in a pool of blood. To cruise around town, he steals cars and mows down pedestrians who get in his way. And to keep his spirits from flagging amid all the mayhem, he can hire a prostitute and have sex with her in his car. While the game does not show the sex onscreen, the rocking of the car, the sound of the woman groaning and the vibrations of the PlayStation 2 game pad leave little to the imagination.

Today most of children play video games. But a large part of video games contain violence, even sex. A way to protect children needs to be found. The government should make a Rating system and related laws, for video games, as soon as possible.

Risks and Influences

As we all know, violent video games have some bad influences on children, physical and mental. Children spend lots of time sitting in front of TV sets and staring of them. The harm to children’s eyes is very difficult to cure. What’s worse, the influences created by violent video games are terrible.

Viewing video violence activates specific areas of the brain that are known to be involved in recognizing, remembering, and rehearsing or activating aggressive behavior, contends a study by John Murray, professor of developmental psychology at Kansas State University, Manhattan.

"Children respond to video violence by activating areas of the brain involved in fear responses," Murray explains. "The amygdale--the organ in the brain that recognizes the threat in the environment and prepares the body for fight or flight--is activated, along with the posterior cingulated, an area of the brain that stores traumatic events for long-term memory, such as that found in post-traumatic stress disorder victims of violence."

As video games have become a regular part of kids' daily lives--a recent survey by Michigan State University found that eighth-grade boys play them on average 23 hours a week and girls 12 hours--many people agree that the games' increasingly realistic depictions of violence and sex need to be examined.

Rates and Laws

Parents need help with control of video games in the same way they needed help with control over alcohol. A way to ban the distribution, sale and rental of graphically violent and sexually explicit video games to children under 18 should be found. The United States has already set up this system to prevent children from violent games. But children still can get these video games. To be sure, the industry’s Entertainment Software Rating Board has voluntarily established its own ratings system. The trouble is: It isn’t enforced. A study by the Federal Trade Commission found that early teens were able to buy games rated M (Mature 17+) 69 percent of the time.

Nevertheless, three previous attempts to block the distribution of violent games to minors--initially approved in Indianapolis; St. Louis; and Washington--have been overturned in federal courts on the grounds that video games are protected "speech" under the First Amendment.

The courts

California has passed a law to ban the sale or rental of ultra-violent video games to children under the age of 18 unless they have permission from their parents. "Ultra violent" is defined as depicting serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.

The law requires game manufacturers and distributors to label the games for adult sale only. Retailers who sell them inappropriately face a $1,000 fine. Illinois and Michigan also passed laws this year.

The video game industry is suing to strike down these laws as unconstitutional, as it has done successfully in other states. They point to the industry-imposed ratings system that gives detailed descriptions of violence in a game and labels some titles as "mature" or "adults only."

Western Washington Summary Judgment, July 2004

As a comparer to the case in California, the district court invalidated a Washington state law curbing the distribution of violent video games to minors on the grounds that the law violated the First Amendment.

In July 2004, Judge Robert Lasnik of the U.S. District Court in Seattle granted summary judgment to overturn Washington state HB1009, which sought to ban the sale of certain video games to minors. Judge Lasnik’s ruling determined that the Washington state statute was clearly unconstitutional.

In his ruling, Judge Lasnik rejected the state's argument that video games should be regulated under obscenity law, and declined the state's invitation to expand the narrowly defined obscenity exception to include portrayals of violence.

After striking the Washington law as unconstitutional, Judge Lasnik ordered the State of Washington to pay the video game industry $344,000 to cover their attorney’s fees in this case.

In

conclusion, as criticism of violence and explicit content in games is on the rise, our children, also parents, need help to reduce the sale and rental of the violent and erotical video games. These video games not only bring about physical problems, like harms on our brain, but also cause mental and social problems, especially juvenile delinquency (teenagers’ crime). The government should take steps to improve the rating system and the related laws as soon as possible, to prevent the children in Washington State from becoming violent through playing violent video games.

Works Cited

Whitehead, Barbara Dafoe. “Parents Need Help: Restricting Access to Video.” Commonweal 2005, Vol. 132 Issue 2, p9-10,2p

“Video Violence Desensitizes Brain.” USA Today Magazine; Apr2006, Vol. 134 Issue 2731, p13-14,2p ( John Murray )

“Going After Video Game Violence” State Legislatures; Jan2006, Vol. 32 Issue 1, p9-9, 1/3p

Hamilton, Anita; Aguayo, Anna Macias; Isackson, Noah; Thigpen, David E; Locke, Laura A. “Video Vigilantes.” Time; 1/10/2005, Vol. 165 Issue 2, p60-63, 2p, 2c

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