At dinner a friend mentioned he had posted an article on Blogcritics.org about a bill that restricts the sale of violent video games to minors. It is quiet a popular topic (and my friends I was having dinner with have completely different ideas on the matter. You can see the whole article here on Yahoo! News. I even posted a comment. Here is my comment on the issue:
"I think both sides have excellent points. Playing a violent video game doesn't make a person (regardless of age) do bad things. As shown in many studies there are many other factors that play a role in behavior. Can the game be one of these factors - absolutely. But so can many other things cartoons, other siblings, friends at school or even the 6 o'clock news.
I don't believe that one law is going to make a huge difference either way. They have had laws about selling cigarettes to under age persons and they keep cigarettes out of their hands. Under aged people who really wanted them could still get them. So, yes it helped. However, the biggest help was campaigns about the dangers of smoking and celebrities tell people that cigarettes were a health risk.
What really needs to happen for video games is similar to that of cigarettes. It needs to be pointed out the youth that what they see and do in video games isn't neccessarily OK in the real world. There should be a greater focus on these efforts and less over who can buy them at the store.
Maybe these laws are a first step, maybe they aren't - I really don't know because that is an extremely hard call to make. If Cookie Monstor had to change his image (cookies are for sometimes) maybe it's time for other changes as well. However, I am quiet sure when people started working with 2D graphics they never imaged them becoming as realistic or life-like as they are now. I am sure they never would have believed that we would be seeing complete movies on the topic either."
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