This just another extension of the standard human fear of the unknown. Modern parents grew up with alcohol and porn, and so while they don''t want there children exposed to it, but they can fully understand what it is, so it doesn't worry them as much as video games, which to them are these shady unknown threats that do god knows what to there kids. It's misguided fear, but you can't really blame them, what with all the misinformation spread by the media.

@ Inexpressticality

A complete genius

Marijuana and video games should be at the bottom of the list. Alcohol has destroyed so many lives and killed so many. No one has ever died from marijuana. People just fear marijuana `because it's illegal, not harmful. As for everything else, it's all about moderation.

BUT JIM! Alcohol doesn't make you violent, and pornography doesn't drive some people to get prostitutes! GTAIV is proven to do both those things for the low low price of $59.99!

"While technology has advanced in leaps and bounds, most of us seem still to be mentally identical to medieval peasants."

jim sterling if i didnt have respect for you before this article i would sex your face after that comment.

And Daxelman is now on Homeland Security watch lists.

Seriously though, after violent crimes and such, what does FauxNews go to? What would you be scared of if all that told you what to be scared of was what a little talking head?

I am convinced that a vast majority of human beings have not been able to evolve in step with our development as an overall species.

This is why we need to make the cloning of velociraptors a top priority. We need something higher on the food chain than us, something that will weed out the stupid ones.

On a more serious note, I'm a parent. I also happen to be a gamer. I'm smart enough to know that, when my children are older, there will be games out there that they shouldn't play, unless I feel they are mature enough to handle them.

That said, my 4-year old son snuck in on me playing Dead Rising. While he knows about zombies (hell, he knows what'll kill a werewolf or the weaknesses of vampires), it was still a little too much for him, and he ended up having nightmares that night. I just have to make sure the little ninja is sleeping before I pop in a game he shouldn't see. The only way to calm him down when he woke up was to explain to him that what he saw wasn't real, that it was a game, and that zombies aren't real (until the Zombie Apocalypse, that is).

It was no different from when I was his age and snuck in on my parents watching Halloween II. For weeks, I thought Michael Myers was hiding in our bathroom. They had a much more difficult time explaining to me that Michael Myers wasn't real, as I saw this actual guy on TV slice and dice people, not a video game character made of pixels and polygons. And yet, even after that, I grew up loving horror movies.

Okay, sorry...tangent...

I'm willing to bet that most of the parents polled blindly let lil' Jimmy have their permission to buy GTA IV, and then were shocked to see what the game entailed. It doesn't say "M for Mature" on the box for nothing, mom and dad. Learn to check the ratings and do a little research instead of buying a game for your kid so they stay out of your hair and let you drink your problems away.

@covah
I'm sure my parents would rather have me playing GTA than being publicly drunk every weekend at school.

This was kinda-sorta my mom's reasoning behind letting me play video games. She told me a year or so ago, when I made a joke about how I played video games all the time and look at where it got me (married, 2 kids, good-paying full-time job), that "when you were playing games, I knew you weren't out having sex or getting drunk". Nope, I was at home, skin turning pale and thumbs a' twitchin'.

than*

I think I would definitely be more concerned about violence than porn, but I don't think GTA is all that bad really. As graphically advanced as games have become it's still a far cry from realistic.

But you have to consider: most parents these days are still stupid children that didn't exactly become parents intentionally (or if they did they just suck).

I can't wait for GTA4 PC to come out. I can play GTA 4 with some porn going on in my browser in the background, along with a bottle of Patron!

yea i have a great job
and i smoke tons of bud
and game when ever im not working

parents need a ball check

Dammit, PASS THE BONG!

Here is a little perspecitve on continuing mental evolution. I think people are the main reason OTHER people don't mentally improve. You are a product of your environment and the people in that environment. People can't think for themselves and must think in terms of their upbringing or the circumstances that have happened to them. I am a prime example.

Consider the following oxymoron: "My mother taught me to think for myself."

Oh, did she now...

This is embarrassing. People are stupid.

people are more concerned about a video game than real-life things?? Well, second to some of that good marijuana at least ... people need to get their priorties straight.

Well I've made one of those so-called childs (stupid condom) and alcohol will always be higher in my book because there is no kid friendly booze (unfortunately, but someone really needs to get working on that one!). As for porn... lol, well what good dad doesn't sit there, I dont know, 3 year old down and show him the joys of porn? amiright?

Poor kids don't know they're being raised by complete morons.

I think this might be another case of misinterpreting the data, Jim. Why would parents be more concerned about video games than alcohol? It could be because they've already had a talk with their children about the dangers of alcohol, and they trust their children to make the right decision about it. Video games, however, are an entirely different beast, and we've all seen that rather than talking to their kids about the issues surrounding M rated games, people would rather just ban them altogether. But since they can't, they sit there and worry about what their children are playing at their friends' houses.

This is, of course, just another way of interpreting the data. I can't say for sure that this is correct either, but it seems more plausible to me.

Wow,this is admittedly astonishing.Despite the fact grog and drugs possess a permanent effect,on even the mind of an adult,all this worry over a videogame that parents could easily hamper children from playing....well just proves that certain humans haven't evolved mentally.