Violent Video Games
The following is a scene from Grand Theft Auto : Vice City. It is a first person game where the player controls all the characters and is awarded points for behaving in certain ways.
You steal a geek’s Corvette and speed along Miami’s roadways. You turn up the volume on the car’s radio. You see a pretty woman standing beside the road and slam on the brakes. She walks over to your car, smiles and asks “You want to have a good time?”. She’s a prostitute. You let her in the car, have simulated sex with her, then shoot her in the head with the pistol you stole earlier from a policemen you murdered. As she dies, blood pouring from her head, you retrieve the money you gave her.
In this game you get extra points for shooting the prostitute and are awarded double points for shooting police officers.
The experts do not all agree about the effect these types of games have on our young people but there is a growing body of evidence that links violent video games with serious anti social behaviour. Professor Craig Anderson (Iowa State University) says the evidence is every bit as strong as the evidence linking second-hand smoke to lung cancer. (“Violent Video Games: Myths,facts and unanswered questions”, Psychological Science Agenda, volume 16, October 2003)