Video gaming myths article posted down a few has garnered a number of post on XMG. I decided to put one of my posts here. People were grouping all kids and adults into a sane category which wasn't realisitc.

The problem with this discussion is that 'kids' and 'parents' can't be all lumped together. My kid is sane and well-rounded. Outside of wanting to have a nerf gun fight w/ me isn't violent. Other kids are out of realm of knowledge but we all try to put them together roughly to who we know and what we see on sitcoms. There are crazy adults or kids that shouldn't play violent games because they just can't handle it. The games themselves aren't to blame for violent behavior. That's like blaming Ginzu for a stabbing.

What about copycat crimes? Can you stop crazy people from watching the news reading a news paper?

Asking parent's to be responsible is not unreasonable but won't solve these isolated media induced crimes. Because you have overprotective parents who is forbid video games and even the news thereby making their house into a cocoon. When the kid finally grows up he/she can be overwhelmed by reality. The other end of the spectrum are the parents that duct tapes their kids or the ones who think that their kids burden them and then ignore them. That's when the problems come out.

I let my son play some violent games with me (not GTA or anything that is blatently sexual, bloody or questionable such as killing cops). I understand what is wrong and I make sure anything we play I explain it to him as well.

There is also a possiblity that the laywers are using the gaming industry/media as a defense which will inflate the statistics.