Jim's FNC post got me all raging pissed off. I felt I needed to send an email to "expert" Cooper Lawrence. If I happen to get a response (I doubt it, these people don't have time for their kids, let alone some schlub like me) I'll post it later.

Ms. Lawrence

I'm sure you are receiving a few emails on the subject of your recent discussion on Fox News. I must say that, as a 24 year old gamer, I found your comments laughably inaccurate. You must understand that one of the first rules of journalism is that you must do research on your topic (in this case the game Mass Effect) and admitting that you haven't effectively negates your argument. When you snorted at Mr. Keighley's question as to whether or not you had played the game, I realized you had no idea what you were talking about. Unfortunately we do live in a society where children are readily able to access adult material on the internet, their cellphones, and their televisions. Fortunately each of those devices, and the XBox 360, have parental controls built in or that can be purchased so parents can monitor and control what their children are able to access. Unfortunately, we live in a society where most parents would rather coddle their children and give them whatever they desire without research, and then blame the companies for the content they produce. Now I would like to give you some statistics on gamers.

Sixty-nine percent of American heads of households play computer and video games.

Ninety-three percent of people who make the actual purchase of computer games and 83% of people who make the actual purchase of video games are 18 years of age or older. The average age of the game buyer is 40 years old.

The average age of video game players is 33.

As you can see, adults do play video games and to simply state that all video games are being played by adolescents is completely untrue.

I am interested in reading the new U. of Maryland research that you cited on Fox News. Can you please tell me where I can acces that study? I have been playing video games since I was about 7 or 8 and I never had trouble distinguishing video games from reality.

I implore you, the next time you are going to be cited as an expert on something, please do some research first.

Source: http://www.theesa.com/facts/gamer_data.php
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