Senator Proposes Bill To Research Impact Of Violent Games On Children

No the industry should not. We already have a rating system. You cant buy adult video games unless your 18. If your a parent and you buy your child a game outside of his age bracket its your fault not the industries.

I don't believe in censorship or living in a sterilized world. Would you want to play the walking dead in which you can only hug the zombies?

What they should really be investigating is the psychological effects of developing minds being exposed to a country that is constantly in multiple wars. Kills children with drone strikes including american dual citizens without trail. A country that locks non violent plant smokers in prison. I think the things we are doing to each other in real life have a greater effect on people than what they see in a virtual world.

Also study the effect of psychoactive drugs we have been druggie our children with. Developing minds should not be exposed to psychoactive drugs. The schools are pushing for over medicating of add problems with a checklist any child would pass for add. Then when the child complains of not feeling happy or fitting in the doctors give them antidepressants that have shown to cause violent outbursts and suicidal ideology.

This is a complicated issue. I don't think there is anything wrong with asking the question. Maybe we will finally be able to prove that violent video games do not have a significant mental impact on players any more than violent movies or comic books. A deep, lonely place inside me is almost curious if banning violent games would lead to more interesting and creative games instead of the endless slog of military-themed shooters we have now. Not that I want bans, mind you. Mature content allows for mature story-telling. But it doesn't guarantee it.

I think the study should happen... and prove once and for all that there is no link between kid violence and video game.

I hate this nanny state bullshit. If parents' don't see a problem, why should the government waste money on this? I'd be more interested to know why parents' find blood, guts and death so acceptable but nudity is completely reprehensible. It should be the complete opposite. Could it be that TPTB would rather have desensitized consumers than peaceful lovers? I wonder why... Military Industrial Complex, I'm looking at you.

So kids can see a bunch of R rated movies despite the ratings, and yet it's the responsibly of game developers to cater to children despite the ratings?

This is exactly what people should be looking at. A violent and/or unstable that had access to guns previously are going to cause a lot of damage regardless whether or not they played video games. A mentally unstable person is going to be easily influenced by anything, not just games. Video games don't have this magical ability to turn anyone that plays them into serial murderers.

I read somewhere that the video game study could serve as part of a compromise (along with mental health research) in having some gun control measures (mostly the ban on assault weapons). If that is the case, I'm willing to make the trade off to do that. I wouldn't agree to Rockefeller's bill if it were just a singular bill, as it would feel too much like scapegoating and avoiding the larger issue. Frankly, if the only result of such a study was a stronger enforcement of the Mature rating in regards to the sale to the underage consumer with no parent, then that's really no skin off my ass.

I'm in my mid 20's. I grew up owning violent video games & firearms (I had a shotgun at about age 8). We don't need to waste money doing studies, or money creating laws. We need parents to practice accountability.

Get to know your child. Can he handle violence and differentiate between fantasy and reality? Great, feel free to let him. Does your child have limitations? Awesome! Raise him within his means instead of depending on me to give up my money and rights to sanitize the world for him.

Same here! The first game I ever played was Mortal Kombat at 2 and my dad bought me my first BB gun at 8. A year later at 9 he took me to a shooting range with his .22 revolver and .22 rifle. I am 22 and going to school to become a police officer. PARENTS STOP IGNORING YOUR KIDS AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY!

Another example of the U.S Government trying to place the blame on someone. Every time these shootings happen a congressmen jumps all over the game industry like its their fault. In reality its are Government being a lazy and not wanting to find a real solution. Its easier to point the finger at someone then it is to actually solve the problem.

I think just about any scientific research is worthwhile, but unfortunately even if the research is well done, anyone who does not like the results will probably ignore them. After all, why believe what a bunch of clearly biased researchers say when you have probably already made up your reasoning long ago about how violent video games affect children?

Maybe they can start including recordings of Mr. Rogers show with violent video games to even things out?

One thing I learned while studying statistics in college is that, given enough data, enough time, and enough motivation; you can make data back anything you want it to back.

I created this account just for this article.
I agree with the writer and several other comments. I'm surprised this discussion never went this direction before. We live in a nation of zero accountability, there are meds for EVERYTHING, parents can no longer discipline their children, and people just seem to generally not care what their kids do.

I've personally argued this since the early GTA days. People look for the easy way out instead of opting to shoulder some of the burden themselves. What are kids getting taught at home nowadays? Granted a violent game when I was that age was Contra and Ninja Turtles, but I ultimately had free choice on what I played...Doom and Unreal early on...and we owned firearms. I spent a fair amount of time raising myself, with a working class family, that's hard to avoid. ...By the line of thinking on our elected officials part, I should have been a ticking time bomb. BUT, I was raised with a strong sense of honor and right and wrong. We wouldn't have near the problems we do if people would just be more proactive with their children.

Thanks for giving me a venue to get that off my chest lol.

I created this account just for this article.
I agree with the writer and several other comments. I'm surprised this discussion never went this direction before. We live in a nation of zero accountability, there are meds for EVERYTHING, parents can no longer discipline their children, and people just seem to generally not care what their kids do.

I've personally argued this since the early GTA days. People look for the easy way out instead of opting to shoulder some of the burden themselves. What are kids getting taught at home nowadays? Granted a violent game when I was that age was Contra and Ninja Turtles, but I ultimately had free choice on what I played...Doom and Unreal early on...and we owned firearms. I spent a fair amount of time raising myself, with a working class family, that's hard to avoid. ...By the line of thinking on our elected officials part, I should have been a ticking time bomb. BUT, I was raised with a strong sense of honor and right and wrong. We wouldn't have near the problems we do if people would just be more proactive with their children.

Thanks for giving me a venue to get that off my chest lol.

Parents dont get your kids things for adults. If you have a young child, no rated M games, no Rated R or even PG13 films depending on the context, no music with explicit lyrics, they dont need cellphones, or fancy clothes, stop getting them age inappropriate things just to stop them from whining.

Sincerely, pretty much everyone else in this world with half a ****ing brain.

THIS is realy crazy. for one even if the researchers find that playing games really doesn't lead to violent behavior some people will surely manupulate them and then they will use it to blame video games. secondly, has someone forgotten that if they ban games thousands of people employed in the industry will be affected . will the ****ing government take responsibility for these people? third point is dont violent real actions affect children more than game? if the anti-gaming nuts think banning games will stop some ****ing psychopath from killing people in the future then they should have their ****ing heads checked.

I said it before and will say it again...how about religion? Firstly, there can be found more violence in the Bible, more sick sick human behaviour vividly described in there than basically any (other) work of fiction. Religious texts give rise to more hatred and warmongers than any video game ever has or could. Unless, of course, these sort of troublemakers (i.e. this senator) think that war related killings and rape is just a statistic and is less relevant than a school shooting... I've played all the games out there considered to be violent, and I've never even had an ounce of violent thoughts lurking in the shadows as a consequence. If a person can be influenced by a video game, then there are issues there to begin with - but let's not forget that serial killers have been influenced by books, it's just that the average moron who gets influenced by violence in movies or games is probably too dumb to read. Anyways, -men in cloth- are responsible for the worst deeds of men!