Did you know: before video games, there were no murders.

I think what Paul Jackson, Phillip Oliver and David Braben said in the article nailed it right on the head. Parents need to take responsibility for their kids. I'll never understand why some parents would balk at the idea of their kids watching an R rated movie, but have no problem buying M rated games for them.

the amount of parents coming into my shop and buying their kids a 18rated game is scarey, they just dont seem to notice or care that their kid is about to play gta and beat a prosititute to death with a dildo, well that and other things but i just wish parents would just take more notice of what their kids or doing and even join in, myabe not with gta...

The problem here is how they took a psychologist who wrote books about parenting and some other media related stuff: [url]http://tinyurl.com/yr254q[url].

You need at least some people from the media psychology field, and some cognitive scientists to boot. Gaming isn't just like tv, you need to have some understanding of the media to understand the effects. Otherwise you get generalizations like: "Most of the participants were emotionally affected by the game Final Fantasy VI. This means that this RPG genre will lead to more emotional response in the target group."

I can't even imagine what kind of parenting program this Tanya woman will come up with.

of course but most dont mind so theres little you can do about it as the parent buys the game legally and hands it over to their child right infront of me! its bad enough with gta but 50cent thats just cruel to everyone

or we could possibly go with the other approach, and have the parents actually get it through to the kid that it's just a game... cuz I grew up playing 18+ and M's and I'm far from violent... a little.. 'odd' but not violent, that's for sure..

these people who are blaming video games for their kids' violence, or a kid who blames the video games are just looking for a scapegoat.. seriously, I DID beat the crap out of someone once, and my mother tried to blame the games I was playing.. my response was something like "umm.. no.. she was just a bitch.. if it were the games influencing me, I'd have shot her in the knees, and thrown her into oncoming traffic.."

sorry.. these kids/parents are full of shit.. how hard is it to teach a kid that cutting someones' head off in a game, is different then cutting someones' head off in real life.. if anything violent games should LOWER violence in children, because as a Kid for me (and most of my friends) it was a great way to let off steam "DAMNIT MOM!!" and then go kick the crap out of some Tekken chars.. or w/e the game was at the time.. either way, you get my point..

Reality vs. Virtual Reality... it's the parents job to get the kid to understand the difference before they play.. NOT change/ban the game..