The Lincoln Log

Everyone is in charge of his or her own actions and cannot blame them on what they seen on a screen. We as conscious people are able to think for ourselves and con determinate what is good and what is bad. Contrary to some though, violent video games do not provoke actual physical violence from its players.

Video games will turn 35-years-old in 2007, from the old-school Pong, to the more highly advanced video games of today. Seventy-nine percent of American children play computer or video games on a regular basis. Most of the games may be appropriate for most ages while some games may contain content not suitable for younger children and are intended for more mature people.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) places ratings on video games to provide accurate and informative information about the content in a video game. These ratings range from Early Childhood (eC) to Adults only (Ao). Early childhood games have content suitable for young children, while the increase in ratings of games adjusts to the suitable level of the appropriate audience. For mature games, minors are not allowed to buy themselves. Instead adults, mainly parents, are expected to buy them.

Parents are sometimes unaware of the ESRB ratings and end up buying a violent video game for their child. The child is then exposed to the violent content of the game which could range from sexual content, blood and gore, to violence. Parents who are aware of the ESRB ratings usually take heed to its warnings while some trust that their child is smart enough to separate reality from a video game.

Whether the person playing the game is young or old the person should have enough common sense to know not to imitate what they see in video games, especially if the game contains sexual or violent material. The person should know there would be dire consequences for committing such acts like fines, jail sentences and more. It’s also just stupid. Video games are not any more violent in their images than television shows and movies are.

Video games aren’t real; at most they are an extension of the human mind, a place where people can do what they can’t really do in real life. They are a place for people to escape, a fun way to forget the harsh realism of life. They are for pure entertainment, not to plan a bombing on a major landmark. Violent video games are violent. It’s just up to the person to have enough common sense and morals to not imitate the violence they see.