Today’s Video Games
Today’s Video Games – Not for the Faint of Heart
Pong and Pac-Man, early video games in the 1970s and 1980s, have given way to Grand Theft Auto, Civilization and Madden NFL, vastly different masterpieces of graphics, interactivity, and sound. The 20 billion dollar video game industry offers something for everyone, although the largest consumer group of this medium is teenage boys. Fully 97 percent of teens aged 12-17 – predominately boys – play computer, web, portal, or console games. Another study found that teen boys in the United States spend an average of 18 hours weekly playing video games.
While video games are subject to an industry self-rating system similar to movies, many parents remain in the dark – not knowing or understanding what games their children are playing. Games are rated from EC (Early Childhood) and E (Everyone) for all audiences, to M (Mature) for violence, language, blood and gore, and AO (Adult Only). While most parents believe they know what games their child is playing, only three-quarters actually check the ratings, and teens say their parents never check the ratings. Parents can sit down and preview a movie in a couple of hours, yet, often, titillating graphics and gore in video games can only be triggered by complicated, advanced movements and many more hours of play.
Still, the games of choice for teen boys include many mature-audience rated games. The quick pace, realism, and noisy, shoot-‘em-up action draws them into the worlds of Grand Theft Auto and Halo. Violent M-rated games dominate the market, and a year ago half of the top ten best sellers for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 were M-rated. A 2006 undercover investigation by the Federal Trade Commission found 42 percent of teens aged 13-16 were able to buy M-rated games, and only half of the cashiers asked the teen’s age.
The link between playing violent games and aggressive behavior is conclusive. Earlier this year, a study by Iowa State University psychology professor Craig Anderson found that exposure to violence in video games makes kids more aggressive and less caring regardless of age, sex, or culture. Published in the March 2010 Psychological Bulletin, the review of 130 research reports determined that “exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive thoughts and behavior, and decreased empathy and pro-social behavior in youths.”
Violent video games put the player in the driver’s seat. Instead of watching a terminator, a player becomes the terminator, rehearsing a violent act; and in video games, a violent act most often goes unpunished. Quite the opposite, Grand Theft Auto Vice Squad rewards the player for killing pedestrians. The repetitive actions – much like the training many soldiers receive – desensitize players to the act of killing. With immediate rewards, video games can become behaviorally addicting.
In 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed child-protection legislation (AB 1179, Yee) to prohibit the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. AB 1179 required a label be affixed to this category of game and imposed a $1,000 fine on violators who sold or rented violent video games to children under 18. In his press release, the governor said, “Today I signed legislation to ensure parent involvement in determining which video games are appropriate for their children. The bill I signed will require that violent video games be clearly labeled and not be sold to children under 18 years old. Many of these games are made for adults and choosing games that are appropriate for kids should be a decision made by their parents.”
The video game industry immediately challenged AB 1179 in court, and the legislation never was enforced. In 2007, the U.S. District Court for Northern California invalidated the California law, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision two years later. Last month, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the California appeal of those decisions, making Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association, 08-1448 the test case for six other states as well – where similar laws have been hamstrung in the courts.
While the gaming industry argues freedom of artistic expression under the First Amendment, the state argues that the same flexible legal standard that has been applied to sexually explicit materials sold to children be applied to violent video games. Currently, states may limit the sale of explicit sexual materials to children. Applying this standard to video games would allow states to determine and regulate some content as harmful to children.
Help for parents: The Parents Television Council has extensive information on violent video games – including research and video game reviews. Another good source for game reviews is Focus on the Family’s Plugged In ministry. Most of all, stay involved, set limits, monitor what your child is playing, and keep the game console where you can “peek in” from time to time. And pray, too, for the Supreme Court to give favor to the authority of parents, allowing states to enforce laws that disallow children from purchasing “mature” video games. As parents strive to oversee their children’s activities, we can use all the help we can get.
