Yesterday, the Supreme Court overturned California's ban on the sale of violent video games to children. I am concerned that yesterdays ruling by the Supreme Court sends the message to parents that their is nothing wrong with letting their children play these violent games. In 2005, California passed this law using studies that supported the opinion that children who played violent video games for many hours are desensitized to violence and become more aggressive. This law prevented children from going in and buying those games that were deemed too violent. The Supreme Court argued that this violated our children's first amendment rights. They also went on to state that books and T.V. shows also exhibit these violent behavior.
Several of the violent shootings of the past several decades have been directly linked to certain violent video games. One incident in particular involved a teenager who had never fired a real gun before shooting eight people, seven of them right between the eyes. How is this possible? He was addicted to a shooting video game. Whenviewing the video tape of the shooting, it was observed that his eyes glazed over as he began shooting.
Given the ruling by the Supreme Court, it is more important than ever to monitor the games that your children are playing and to ensure that they understand that it is only a game; real life has real life consequences. People don't just stand back up after being shot like they do on many video games. It is up to us, as parents, to protect our children!
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