by Nick Todd

Created on: May 28, 2009   Last Updated: June 02, 2009

Almost every child in America grows up playing video games. According to the latest research, too much playing with game consoles can lead to decreased brain activity and cause users to suffer from severe emotional and behavioral problems. Though sometimes fun, video games can be too real life like.

In a video game such as Vice City, you walk around with a gun and hijack cars and take money as well as participate in illegal activities. The graphics are amazing, but the effect of playing these games, is not. It is proven that kids who play more of these violent video games become more adapted to a violent life. If being destructive if losing morals becomes second nature to kids because of video games, how can we even expect for kids to be normal and civilized, thinking through decisionsthat look as real as the video games.

If kids are used to stealing, holding, and shooting guns in video games, then if they get a gun later and are on the streets, will it not be more second nature to have the gun? If in a game they kill people and blood is everywhere, and they take the game money, won't it become more common for them and easier to accept. Also in the video games, they see all kinds of tricks and 'cool' moves that the character can do, would they not pick up on these in real life? My opinion is that all video games involving guns and killing should be reserved for mature audiences if allowed at all.

Killing in games really shouldn't become second nature and familiarto us. I wonder if these games were banned from being sold, how many less murders and how much less violence there would be in the news and in our neighborhoods. The killings at high schools several years back were where kids got a hold of guns as they had seen in video games, and decided to go to school with the guns along with the problems they had built up inside themselves and start shooting teachers and students.

There are three positive effects that we can obtain from less violent video games such as following instructions, coordination, and problem solving and logic. If children play multi player games together which are non-violent, they might learn teamwork, instead of 'killing' each other. Though these are all good things, children should go outside and play and have fun this way. This way they can be healthy, build teamwork, be themselves, and never confuse reality and fantasy.

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