Parents Can Track Violent Video Games Children Might Be Playing

It’s 10:15 p.m. on a Saturday night. Your teenager is home this evening, something that gives you comfort. However, in the last three hours, he’s committed six murders, broken into a home, committed armed robbery, extorted money from gang members, participated in a drive-by shooting, slept with a prostitute, and then beat her to death with a golf club. Surprised? As far as you can tell, he’s never left his bedroom.

In truth, he’s not physically gone anywhere. He’s been playing one of the Grand Theft Auto series of video games, available for consoles (Playstation 2, Nintendo, Xbox), hand-held devices, and PCs.

Video games have come a long way from "Pong" and "Pac Man," and there are some games that have considerable pro-social content and encourage learning. Others, like many of the sports titles, offer entertainment and opportunities to increase coordination and decision-making skills. A number of games, however, possess content that would make a sailor blush–explicit violence, gore, and even nudity and strong sexual content. Parents should remember that all games are educational, but the type of instruction delivered may not be desirable. Just ask former U.S. Army Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.

Grossman has authored two books on the connection between violent media and actual violence. He argues that children learn to use weapons and become sharpshooters through the simulated games the same way soldiers use simulations to improve their shooting precision. Just as children can improve their phonics with a video game like "Learn to Read with Winnie the Pooh," older children can learn to shoot with deadly accuracy playing "Doom," "Splinter Cell," and other first-person shooting games.

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a report tracking media use among 7th to 12th graders and found that, on average, youth spent as much time playing video games as completing homework. The report noted that 56% of those children have two or more video game players at home.