In the article Gaming and Violence by Harvey Rothwell, Harvey writes about how a boy who played a lot of video games essentially took the law into his own hands and died because of it. The boy was shot and killed with his own hand gun by the custodian Brice Smith after a botched robbery. After the boy’s death Coalition against Teen Subversion (CATS) is calling for a Canadian ban on internet communities for students under the age of 16. For the most part I agree, I think that kids should not have access to online communities until they are at least 16+.

                Kids are like sponges they suck up any information that is presented to them, which is why they should be banned from online communities, I say this because most online communities are sees-pools of hate and violence towards each other. It is the last place any parent should let their kid spend time. So really it’s not the violence in the actual game I am worried about (TV, movies, and music are easier to use and just as violent/vulgar) it’s the people that they will interact will interact with. I have been on X-Box Live for almost 4 years and I cannot even fathom the amount of times I have heard the words nigger, fuck you, shit etc. But I don’t let it bother me (I also report the person that spews this hate) but I cannot say the same for kids (heck half the time it is a kid saying the vulgar words), because of this I think that kids should be allowed to play the games online as long as they meet the ESRB’s age restrictions) but should be banned from talking to others, they should be able to still talk to friends and people they know.

                A lot of people would probably ask how I can count the actual violence in video games as such a moot point. Well that’s quit easy for me, if the parents are supervising their kids (You know instead of using the video game as a babysitter) and talking about right and wrong, and the difference between the virtual worlds vs. the real world. I for example grew up with Mortal Kombat, and Turok two extremely violent video games and I turned out fine, mostly because my mom was always making sure I know what I was doing and that it was not okay to do in real life.

                At the end of the day this whole “violent video games are evil” thing will be over this same exact thing happened to TV, Movies, and Music. It’s just a collection of people freaking out about something they do not understand. Education on the subject of violent video games would be beneficial to both parents and their children. Also, the video game industry has its own rating system called the ESRB which rates games based on their content (i.e. violence, drugs, and sex) and gives them an appropriate rating, E for Everyone, T for Teen, and M for Mature are the main ones. So if a child is playing an M or T game and the child is not actually old enough it’s not the video game industry’s fault it’s the parents. At the same time just following these letter grades isn’t where the parenting should stop, parents need to make sure they know who their child is talking too, because generally people online are horrible people and as such kids should not be allowed to interact with the online gaming community until they are 16 or older.