I think its not violence its the lack of parents doing their job thats the problem. Pay attention to what your kids are doing we would have this problem. Yet you won't. You'll wait tell everything is banned but school and work before you decide maybe it is the parents faults.

Dart u are absolutely correct and this is coming from a parent and a lover of all video games. I have no problems letting my kids watch me play world of warcraft or even Halo 3 and i even believe that cussing in front of them is not something i have to zip my mouth shut about as long as i am doing my job as a parent and teaching them what is wrong about the usage or visulizations of these things the will know more about what to do to prevent turning out that way. i Believe that a parent should not control their child in the manner of not letting them do anything but actually let them do those things as long as they teach them the bad things that can happen if used improperly and so forth.......

I am a teenager and i play violent video games my parents taught me the rights and wrongs a long time ago so i know its just a game and doesnt reflect anything in real life.

Dart and Into, although you make a good point, it is apparent you mis-interpreted the article. The points is, that Stephen King is actually raising the issue of not games causing violence, but the fact that in the US, the way to stop these crimes is not to raise the boundry of video games, but to remove the ability for people to go out and buy a weapon to commit them with.

100% Perfect point.

Games don't cause violence in people, Quote: Nubtballs End Quote with access to means to commit violence cause it.

I agree, it is not the fault of violence in video games, TV, and movies, its the fault of parents. I mean people like me were subjected to violence in media, games, and in real life, but my parents made sure I was well behaved, respected other people, and that violence wasn't the right way to fix things. But at the same time, we need to limit how much of this stuff our kids are subjected to. If all they see is sex and violence, that is all they will think about. We need to take our kids out of the house, away from the TV and video games, and take them to the park or something. Get them outdoors, play with them, let them know that there is more to life than what they see on TV. We also need to control the use and ability to obtain guns more. I mean, how is it that kids can so easily get a gun from home or somewhere else, take it to school, and shoot a bunch of people before someone steps in and says that it is wrong?

Dartanin, I would just like to say from a parents point of view that it's not always the parents fault. I have 3 older children (in the late teens and early 20's) and I have done my absolute best to teach them the difference between right and wrong and to respect and treat others as you would want to be treated. One child is a world of warcraft nut he acts like a typical teenager sometimes getting into mischief but never violent. My daughter is wonderful and plays some video games. The third however is an absolute monster. Never plays video games and is always into trouble and extremely violent. My point is that parents can't always be around our children 24/7. We can only teach them the best we can and give them the tools they need to be good law abiding citizens then trust that they use those tools, If they don't or choose to something illegal it's on them as a person not the parent or society. I don't believe video games make children violent and if a parent sees a change in their child due to a particular game they can take them off of it. but I don't think it makes them murderers.

Just because a Game contains violence does not mean it will influence they player or a by-stander who just wishes to watch the game for enjoyment. When I was little I watched my older brother play Resident Evil and Silent Hill all the time, all I had was nightmares. My brother never got aggressive during any of these game sessions, he even interacted with me to have fun. Basically if the child becomes aggressive it is the parents fault or the kid is just flat out rotten to begin with. The reason why parents use games and television violence is to find a way to blame any person but themselves, I have seen it many times just by going to Parent Teacher meetings with my own parents. A few parents I saw were extremely disgusting and they were the ones to point out bad influences in the school programs or extracuricular programs. Not to type out a whole essay but to be blunt. Go Stephen King!

I think im left to quote a old statement from GamePro
"If a child can't tell the diffrence between a video game and real life. Then that child needs more help then just changing a video game."

kind of funny, long ago they used to hang people and have people watch. they are just trying to point there finger at ever one they should point it at them selfs. iv played games all my life, im not violent what so ever but that isnt the same case for the rest of my family who are in and out of jail all the time. they never played video games. its an "old" problem that hasnt really changed they are just trying to blame it on something that hasnt been around as long as violence.

People make they're own choice's...

...not the movie, or the game.

No-one put's the weopon to your hand and said pull the trigger. No-one said inject yourself with it, No-one said swallow this unknown substance...

... You make your final decision's. People make they're own choice's. What's your's?

And that's why I love Stephen King.

The actual problem is that if someone who is emotionally/psychologically weak gains access to a weapon, they are going to be a danger to themselves or others. Many people have psychological problems that range from minor disorders to major psychosis. One main problem is usually all of those issues go undetected as no one makes you look into those issues.

Video games are a 'representation of violence', they do not incite someone to lose their common sense and go kill people. Video games can be a good way to release stress from school/work through the detached reality of the game but should not replace real help if you feel sad/angry on a far to regular basis.

Without a mandatory psych review I doubt anyone should be given a weapon. It's not to say everyone is crazy but if you don't set some sort of responsibility , then generally bad things happen.

I totally love this subject, though it is sad that good thinking and ideas have to emerge from tragedy. If only those who had the ability to make change easier would put an ear out to those who have voices of ideas. Perhaps then, there would be real change, and not just a facade of correction.

Personally, I have lost interest with most "murderous rampages" that are headlined throughout the news. Either they are influenced by the broadcasters’ political views or they are under-represented with truth.

I am no parent, and as such, I claim no actually knowledge of that responsibility. However, I have been around children in their ten's and early teens, as well as later twenty's. I have had the shared responsibility to watch over them and share my experiences as an adult in the vain attempt that my past failures and mistakes might present to them choices either I never had or was presented.

I honestly believe that violence is not begotten from video games or any MMO genre, only the "What If?"

I also honestly believe that Guns, whether they be semi-auto or fully automatic are NOT inherently the root of the problem. A Firearm is nothing more than an inanimate object that can do nothing by itself unless acted upon, it therefore can only arouse thoughts and ideas of how they have been portrayed. An example would be any war movie or news show, that constantly shows a gun or rifle when related to a murder or a killing.

The only way to improve the control of guns is not through rigid legislation that would make it nigh impossible to own, but through teaching and learning. "When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge" - Confucius

Though it would be considered a radical movement, I truly believe it would work a lot better than our current charade.

Though that may ease in the miss-use of Firearms in general, it leads me to my other thought, the "What If?"

How many of us who have gone out there with a clear mind and rented a violent game, or even purchased one with the intent to play it and play it long hours? I know I have, and on several occasions.

The game is not the culprit in the killings. It does not tell people to head outside and murder your neighbor to steal his car, or to go and get a gun and start killing innocent people to keep a running count. It is merely an experience within another realm of reality. Games have become interactive movies for some, as they can take on the persona of another person for a brief period and be able to do all that would be considered either illegal or taboo.

The problem is when proper teaching and learning is not applied. If any, and though I hate sounding like the bloody “It takes a village to raise a child” BS, it does take responsible adults to protect and guide those who have gone astray. I am not referring to legislators’ who constantly jockey themselves for favorable light. It is not and should never be any government’s responsibility to raise a child and teach them the truth of wrong from right. If the parent or guardian or a responsible adult is able to convey across society’s accepted differences of right and wrong than any player will go out think to themselves, “What If?” This is indicative of someone who thinks of consequences of action, and not some “nutball” that will commit atrocities.

There is only one-way to end my rant, “[The superior man] acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.” – Confucius

Violence predates video games. Violence predates guns. It predates tools. It predates man. It's ludicrous to suggest that video games cause violence.

Video Game Addiction and Aggressiveness is a topic that has raised a lot of interest in the past few years. There is hardly any research into it and most of the research that has been done into this topic is in-conclusive. So, what I see as a problem is Legislature making laws on an issue we as society still hardly know anything about. Jumping the gun on topics like this one can really screw people over.

The ESRB was formed for a reason. Just as ratings were put on TV shows, so were ratings put on games. It's not that hard to monitor what a child watches or plays. Heck, the x-box has family settings that will limit what a child can play or do on the x-box. Parental Controls were added to Window Vista, and TV's feature the abillity to filter out content. Granted, some parents just don't know that these tools exist or are out there. So perhaps we should start teaching parents about these tools? And dealing with the real issues like gun control. It may not be a perfect world, and these steps won't make it perfect either. But they are steps in the right direction...

I think dart hit the nail on the head. Too many parents leave it up to video games and television to babysit their kids. Without guidance the representation of violence is left to the childs mind and most likely to get out of control.

So when people go to blame something and grab their soapbox to get legislation they are really just trying to redirect their blindness of what really went wrong.

Definitely the not my child sendrome.

I think that finally seeing someone in the spotlight disagreeing with the governments stance on video game violence is a welcome change to the floor.
As a teenager i find myself having a much higher 'horror' threshold than many adults i know simply because i keep in mind the simple fact that it's a made-up scenario. Time and time again i find myself with my friends; laughing about what we've just seen because of the fact that it's so ludicrously implausable!
In my opinion the best way to prevent your kid being tradgecally being 'manipulated' by video game violence (I'm not saying that we are manipulated, just that this is the common thought) is to instill clear feelings on right and wrong, and to remind them that it is not real. I'm terribly grateful for my parents doing this for me as i feel it has made me a much stronger person that other people i know.

Instead of banning violent games just make weapons harder to get. I an not going to play games if they are all like Animal Crossing and Harvest Moon.