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Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. Once again we hear from Professor Harold Hill from "The Music Man," aka Brent Bozell. Dime novels, Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, rock 'n' roll, horror comic books, "gangsta" rap -- so far, the youth of America have survived unscathed through all the "cultural poisons" that were accused of turning them violent and anti-social. They'll survive video games too.

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I think if there was an intensive study that tried to pin down a relationship between violence (such as stabbing somebody in the neck) and violent video games such as GTA, you would find that these people who lack the conscience to say "Hey, maybe I SHOULDN'T stab this guy" would have done so WITHOUT the influence of violent games. You MIGHT even find that these people are LESS violent in their non-video-game life. After all, this guys stabs a guy in the head and neck, and what's the other guy's response? He goes for his OWN knife. Ha! :) He had a knife on him? I have a feeling that deeper investigation would show that these guys didn't just randomly try to stab eachother. They probably had an altercation of some sort. I bet you would also at least find that the first knife-wielder has a criminal record dating to long before any involvement with violent video games such as GTA. Even if not, you can't deny the influence of a child's upbringing. What about this, though? "[Miley Cyrus] appearing barebacked with a come-hither smile in a photo shoot for Vanity Fair. Did no one understand how the slinky satin-sheet photo would be greeted by the eyes of teenage boys — or men twice her age?" Or men three or FOUR times her age? It sells magazines, and I believe the claim that it was intended by the photographer as a simple artistic shot meant to convey innocence. And once again, any girls that would be influenced by this, probably don't actually need to be influenced to be sexually active or to try to be attractive to the opposite sex in the first place (not that this behavior is inherently "evil," but then, for all I know, you may think masturbation is wrong). Besides, anybody who's ever been interested in the opposite sex knows: "they want it as much as we do." It's not as if all of the skin and scandal in Hollywood mysteriously triggered an as yet unknown sexuality in the world's youth. You know this, Brent. You were a teenager once. Maybe everybody should worry about the bigger fish, like, I don't, maybe implementing serious studies into how we might achieve some sort of a sustainable world society instead of waiting for a savior to come back and clean up the mess for us. I don't think that's unreasonable.

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i don't know how you sleep at night. you use false information to spread your hatered of video games. i play grand theft auto, manhunt, and several other violent games, and not once have i ever attempted to try anything i do in these games. according to your studies i should have shot a cop, stole a car, robbed a store, or gone on a killing spree. thats not the case. games like these are played to escape reality, i agree that parents should be held responsible for the games their young children play but to think a video game creates killers is just far fetched. assuming that a child is that affected by these games the parents need to have the child checked for any mental disorders. point is movies, games, and music DO NOT CREATE KILLERS.

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You are comparing apples and oranges. Miley Cyrus is packaged, aimed at, martketed to, and in every way designed for the consumption of children. GTA is designed for adults. Hence the MA and AO ratings. GTA is not aimed at the 20something gamer market, not the 15 something. I agree that the content of GTA is not suitable for children. In fact many game selling locations have policies about selling MA and AO games to children, presumably it is parents who are plunking down the money to get these games for their fifteen and sixteen year olds. You also seem to assume that videogames are inherently children's fare. This has not been true for a long time. The average gamer is not 15. The average gamer is 27. Therefore games with levels of violence unacceptable violence for children are created. Because there is a large market of consenting adults who do enjoy violent entertainment. 44% of teens have play one of the most popular video game franchises ever. They don't play Madden Football because honestly it sucks. Besides that it's a different game entirely This argument is equivalent to railing against the violence inherent in real-life football, when there's a perfectly good baseball game you can watch. They are different games enjoyed for different reasons. As for violence associated with the purchasing of the game? You attempt to draw a cause and effect between the violence of a few and the violence in the game. This is a logical fallacy. There were 6 million units of the game sold in five days. Of the 6 million units sold, you give us 2 acts of violence associated with the game. That's 5,999,998 people who did manage to make the transaction without causing bloodshed. Violent games do not make violent children. Research shows that video game violence has increased dramatically in incidence and in realism. However violent juvenile crime has gone down in the same span. It would be irresponsible of me to suggest a causal relationship, but it is quite clear that video games are not causing violence. Video games are by and large played for stress relief. Sometimes that takes the form of lining up blocks or controlling the lives of virtual people. Sometimes it takes the form of blasting away zombies and controlling large armies. Similarly, movies are frequently watched for purposes of stress relief and again, sometimes people watch cartoons, sometimes they watch Steven Segal snapping necks. You seem ro propose that it is the simulated murder the young man quoted finds relaxing. I argue that it is the ability to vent frustrations and aggression in a safe environment as well as the fact that a well-designed game will let you forget about the real world for an hour or so. From jazz music to comic books to Elvis' shaking hips, people have been quick to use pop culture as the scapegoat for the ills of modern children. A specific item that one cn point to and say "yes, that's it. That's what's wrong." with the idea that if that is just done away with, all will be well and children will suddenly become perfect angels. It never has worked like that and it never will.