Are Video Games Harmful?

Do you remember the temptations of your teenage years? When I look back, I think that banning a certain "evil" doesn't help at all. It only helps irresponsible parents to grow frustrated young men and young women, that's all. For example, alcohol and cigarettes. I got my first smoke when I was about 4-5 years old, I can't remember well. All that I remember is that my mother or my father passed a cigarette to me(they are not smokers, but we had a smoker as a guest), and they all laughed at me coughing my brains out a minute later. Lesson learned, much better than "don't you ever smoke, it's a sin, it will kill you," and the rest of the mumbo jumbo. In the meantime, I ended up a few times with a cigarette in my mouth, by I never got addicted to the habit. Regarding video games, it's the same, more or less. As long as you take care of your kids and they don't end up spending all their free time in front of the computer, it doesn't matter they are playing Solitaire or GTA 4, but let's see the results of the last survey regarding violence in video games and other teenage temptations, shall we?

So...are video games harmful? According to What They Play, parents are more worried about their kids grabbing GTA 4 or another violent game than some weed, booze or porn. I think they underestimate adult movies showing cigarettes, alcohol and violence, but since there aren't so many movies in that category, let's see what I just promised - the general results of What They Play's latest studies!

In the first of them, What They Play had 3,000 respondents vote for the most dangerous activity for their children. The main choices were drinking beer(bring it on!), watching porn(unfortunately, they didn't mention what kind of porn - I would really be worried if I would find my kid watching gay porn or zoophilia), and - obviously - playing violent games. My advice would be to allow your kids play violent games and have some beer(at least beer without alcohol), because that would surely keep them occupied, and away from porn - unless they are going to play in a window, and watch dirty movies in another... Anyway, the result of the study was that parents are extremely worried about violent games, while drinking and adult movies are less objectionable. Well, their picks, their choices, I am not going to blame anyone.

Next, there was a poll about worries caused by a 17 year old's sleepover. 17 years? Let's be real - at 17, one boy or girl should be well prepared for anything, and communications with parents should be as good as possible. I wouldn't jump 10 feet high if my girl would come to me, tap my shoulder, and ask for a condom, but I would surely jump 20 feet high to see her come to me and say "Dad, I am pregnant." Anyway, those parents in the poll voted marijuana as the worst possible evil, with 49 percent(hey, guys, did you know that marijuana is used as medicine in a lot of places, and tobacco can prove to be much worse in the long run??!), followed by Grand Theft Auto, with only 19 percent(I agree with that, it would be extremely bad for my kids to play GTA...without calling me in!). Anyway, GTA still managed to arrive ahead of porn and liquor!

Just great! I am very curious about guns. Why didn't they include real guns in those studies? Come on, alcohol can only kill if you're a bit nuts and you don't know when to stop, GTA can give you some headaches, in the worst case - as long as you're sane, of course, while guns...but since this is a tabu subject, I think I'll leave guns aside, now.

So...are video games harmful? Ask me, and I'll say NO! Ask them, and they'll put GTA ahead Bin Laden, Saddam, Marilyn Manson or an earthquake with a magnitude of  9.5 on the Richter scale...

If you liked this post, you might consider subscribing to daily games news and reviews by RSS feed or via email:

Delivered by FeedBurner