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Story: Do video games make children violent?

I could not agree more with those posts about bad parenting. Look people, we're all tired of this debate - the facts are simple.

Violent video games do no more to a child than violent movies, violent tv shows, etc. The fact is, we live in a violent society. Our legislature "patches" things, rather than fixes them.

If anyone cares to actually fix this problem, we need to recognize the following:

PLACE THE BLAME WHERE APPROPRIATE:

1. Only in America could this happen without anyone asking why the hell the kid had a gun to begin with. Why should we have stronger legislation over video games than we do over guns? Obviously if a child can get a hold of a weapon, does anyone seriously think acquiring a video game would be a stretch?

2. Only in America could this happen without anyone questioning the parents. Guess what, parenting is tough - if you can't handle it - don't have a kid. The fact of the matter is, most parents are awful parents. Parenting adults LOVE to make excuses as to their shortcomings (and to convince themselves that they are a good parent). The fact is, if you ever hear yourself saying "I'm at work all day..," or "I'm a single parent...," or "I can't control them all of the time...," then guess what? Chances are, you're one of the 'bad parents' everyone loves to talk objectively about. If you are a good parent, you have open communication with your child, you have instilled in them a sense of discipline and honesty, and you know where they are and what they're doing at ALL TIMES. No excuses.

So what is the solution? It's simple. Pass parenting legislature. More specifically, make it into law that parents are DIRECTLY responsible for the actions of their children until they are 18. How about that? If your kid goes and kills three policemen (a horrible tragedy), then YOU go to prison.

How about we make a real law, at the heart of the problem, with some real teeth. Some real accountability for the actions of our society. The fact is, this would never pass, but not because it isn't a good idea, but because we would end up sending thousands (maybe millions?) of parents to prison.

In every case like this (Columbine, Arkansas, etc.), how come I know the names of the video games involved, but not the names of the parents? Why does the media spend all of its airtime attacking the games industry, instead of the parents? In my mind, they could have prevented these acts.

3. "What ever happened to crazy?" -Chris Rock. Repeat that line a couple of times to let it sink in. Look at the statistics: well over 99.9% of video gamers are not commiting these crimes. Since when did the 0.1% of society dictate the laws of the many? The fact is, at least 0.1% of our society is violent, and commits violent crimes. We need a way to combat this problem at its source (which is parenting), rather than merely patching the symptoms.

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