GpsGamePlay.com - Can video games be labeled as a cause of problems with our youth...

Can video games be labeled as a cause of problems with our youth, and if so who should be held accountable?

(The best and most thoughtful answers may be used at StartTruth.com) These days, politicians and parents alike are blaming video games for issues of violence, sexual abuse and general problems with the youth. Do you believe that we (as a society) can place blame on video games? If so, how much blame? Are they completely at fault, partially at fault, etc. If video games are at fault for issues with this generation, who should we hold responsible? The companies for making the games? Parents for buying games without researching what's in them? Stores for selling them? Or children for playing them? And if you believe games aren't at fault, why do politicians and the media love to target video games, just like rock music was targetted in previous generations? Is placing blame frivolously an issue with our society that should be dealt with? And how so?

Public Comments

parents are blaming video games because they refuse to accept responsibility. they use video games as baby sitters for their kids instead of taking care of their kids themselves. what we have is a failure of the parents, not of the video game companies.
The fault is not with video games or movies. Its with the parents. They've let their kids grow up to be stupid and to take what they see in video games as real. I mean I've played GTA and so have many others but you don't see everyone going out and killing people and then tellling the judge that it was because they did it in a video game. Only you have the power to choose what affects you. If you don't use that power, your environment will take control. Parents don't teach, hell, they don't even know about this.
Parents can only do so much. Society is too broad of a category to assign blame to any one specific person. And kids are too naive/young to know any better. I think it is a combination of all of these factors incl. school, media, friends, siblings, relatives, religious institutions, basically anything that an impressionable kid comes into contact with on a daily basis.
I think it should be up to the parents to be involved with their kids and teach them right from wrong. Its easy to point fingers at big companies when it should be the person in charge of the kid who is at fault. People are also sue happy, big companies have a lot of money.
in my youth i had probably played more video games then many people, yet i have more morals then anyone else i know...
Video games are no more to blame than the Twinkies is for you eating it and making you fat. We don't charge the fast food and snack industries for making unhealthy foods and us not being able to hold back our urges, do we? Oh yeah, we do. If the understanding is there that what is in front of you isn't real then you will be OK. Grand Theft Auto is a fantasy world in which you can live out the dreams of the movie world. It's not an idea for something you should go out and do. Just cause on Madden you can make a running back run for 400 yards doesn't mean it should or could be done in real life. Teach a kid some common sense and they won't be influenced by a video game, or a movie, or Hip Hop music, or Rock music that what is portrayed is what they should do. All of these creations for someone to release an idea, twisted or not. But as the interpreter or game player, there is a responsibility to know right from wrong. If someone said go shot somebody you wouldn't do it. So why when you shot someone on a video game should it influence you to shot someone for real? There's real and there's fantasy. Separate the two. Know the difference.
Just look at the graphs at the following website: http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2005/08/violent_video_g.php If video games were such a menace to society, then we should see a positive corelation between game sales and violent crime rate, but it is the exact opposite. Not saying that games make people less violent, but it doesn't have a large effect on society.
Great Question! I plan to be back later to answer it!
here is my two cents. parents blame video games becaus they want to shift the blame of thr ebad parenting skills on something else. politicions well they gotta have something to target. and games being the biggest media out ther enow is the easiest. i dont think games are a factor at all. ppl say that fps games (first person shooters) teach children to aim and shoot a gun. this is so totaly off base. pushing a button on a game pad and pulling the trigger of a gun are far more different. games liek fighting games do not promote it either. these moves are all rather normal moves that have been copied by real trained martial artists. and the worse part is half the stuff you se in video games is not even as bad as some movies out there. and shall we talk about porn. if thats the case then dosnt porn teach sexual lessons. and if that being the case how to rape a person. pls games are meant as fun and if a child does try and emulate a game and try the stuff in real life. the punishment should be pushed on the parent for not saying NO YOU CANT PLAY THAT GAME. if you didnt notice all games come with the esrb rating. and it is up to the parent to knwo what there children are doing. placing the blame on video games is just a way to shift the blame on something else. ppl still listen to music and the government isnt saying anything about backward lyrics and satanic versus. sorry guys games are harmless minus the odd epileptic sezire.
The video games as a group can't be blamed. There's a rating on the box for a reason and parents never seem to take that into consideration. That's the real problem, not the content of the game. If parents don't care what kids play, why should they worry about what's on it?
How can they blame video games?? That is just assinine! Video games don't make people go out and shoot up a school, or start slamming fenders on the highway. People just do stupid things sometimes. As far as kids go, the games are not to blame. It's the parents who don't look into what it is that they are buying their kids. I am 29 years old with two young boys. I play video games quite often. My kids play video games sometimes. I make sure that a game is apropriate for them prior to allowing them to play. The ESRB is there for a reason. If people would only pay closer attention to what it is they are sitting their kids in front of, perhaps we would not have to listen to the ramblings of some elderly ignoramous blaming video games for the violence or lazyness in the world. Do these old guys play video games?? I would have to say most likely not. Do parents take enough responsibility with their children's entertainment?? Some do, some don't. The lax attitude people are begining to have, as far as their kids go, is quite frustrating. Most of all when blame for that lack of attention is being pushed onto some thing or someone else. The companies the make video games are not the ones responsible to raise our kids. Nor do they have to explain right and wrong and the differences there of to our kids. People need to step up and place the fault where it truely belongs. Be responsible and stop trying to blame others for your own misstakes.
Its bad parenting thats what wrong with the youths of today, not freaking video games
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I think that parents just want to avoid the blame. I mean I play violent video games all the time (i play games more than i sleep) (no really) and when i get a cut i dont think i can pick up a band aid and my cut gets healed instantly.