Flada Blog

Video-Game Violence

The National Institute on Media and the Family has recently released a report chastising the violence in video games, naming “Grand Theft Auto” as a particularly violent game.  The report admits that there are few incidents of kids imitating the imaginary violence, but goes on to state that such games can be harmful in other ways–thereafter failing to list a single one of the ways.

After hearing about this “report,” I started thinking a little about the what a person who is a member of the National Institute on Media and the Family might think about other issues.  I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that the vast majority of these anti-violence in video games fanatics are also proponents of every police action, war, and other conflagration that we send similar aged kids off to die and kill in.  I don’t want to start an argument here about the virtues or evils of the current or any other war–that isn’t the point.  I’m in the military myself and understand that war is a necessary evil without which tyrants would gladly torture and enslave the masses.

My point is that many of the same people who don’t think that a 17 year old child should be exposed to fictional violence have no qualms about handing that same man a .50 cal one year later with orders to kill real people.  Either something is wrong with their thinking, or there’s something I’m not getting.