by Marina Shemesh

Created on: June 19, 2008   Last Updated: November 01, 2010

Violence in video games does not contribute to violence in real life. There are terrible acts of violence being committed in places that do not even have electricity, not to mention video games.

Most of the violent crime being committed in South Africa are being done by young men that have hardly touched a game console in their lives. Suicide bombers are not exactly the type of person who sit and play " Western" video games for hours. I doubt that they would even think of playing a game when they have the option of killing innocent people in the real world.

A lot of violence in real life was being committed in the days before video games were even invented. It is funny to think that apart from the wars, the last century had probably been the least cruel so far. Life in the Middle Ages was very hard and people's lives were not worth a lot.

During Roman times people were fed to the lions to entertain the crowds. The people of those days would probably scoff at the virtual violence that is fascinating people these days.

People are violent. They have been violent and they will be violent in the future. That is a fact that we have to acknowledge and we have to know how to deal with it. The only thing that has really changed, is the weapons that people choose to kill each other with.

I doubt that one will ever be able to take the violence out of a person. Our aggression has allowed us to survive this far. We have been "bred" to be violent in order to survive. A woolly mammoth would not have allowed a group of men to kill it simply because they reasoned nicely with him!

Just like everything else in life, violence should be handled in a balanced way. We must have tough people to look after the law and order in a country without personal rights being abolished or ignored.

This is not easy to do and most countries struggle to achieve this balance. It is however the only thing that we have to keep the violence in real life in check. Expecting violence to drop when you ban video games is a bit naive.

So I say that the violence in video games does not contribute to violence in real life. In the worst case, video games will give someone an idea of what violent things to do. It will not MAKE him violent. His genes and environment are responsible for that .

I agree that parents should keep a close eye on the games that their children play. The games must be age appropriate and children as well as grown-ups should also have other interests apart from video games.

Violent games can be in a way therapeutic. Who has not enjoyed destroying the enemy's army or killing that huge monster or gobbled up the dots in Pacman. We are violent people, but we can choose not to be violent to other people and we can choose to live in a society that protects the weak and the young.

Video games does not contribute to violence in real life. People are violent by nature. Until we realize that, people will keep on doing horrible things to other people and refuse to take the blame for it.

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