The hysteria about the unknown, the elder generation`s cruscade about video games!

The cultures among the youts of all ages have been seen on as derogatory for the sosiety by the youths of yesterday. in the 50`s the movie Rebel without cause and song rock around the clock along the likes of Elvis was going to tear down thw sosiety. In the 60`s it was the hippies. And as soon as this generation has grown up, they look with the same skepticism about their children social culture as their own parent had on their culture. Movies and music have been the main targets when the youths in some way rebel against their eldest " suppression" as happens in every generatin in some way. And when a terrible incident occurs the reavtion of the elder generation blames it on the culture of the youths. Take the horrible Columbine shooting in 1999 for instance. Somehow it was figured out they listned to Marilyn Manson, and so he was blamed for having inflenced yhe shootings. In recent years we have seen a new media been targets as the worst of the worst when it comes to infence the petty minds of the youth of our day, video games. they are the new thing politicians and other "experts" on the field use to gain attention targeting whenever there has been some form of incident involving youths committing crimes. Like after the Virginia Tech Masacre where Dr. Phill managed to blame video games in an interview with Larry King on CNN.

The debate on the impact on videogames on individuals`s minds reached a new high in 2001 with the introduction of the game Grand Theft Auto 3. In this game, players played a criminal in a large 3D world with a realism level unparalleled in a game before. Politicians and experts had heard a small portion of what one could do in the game and demanded a ban on violent video games; some even went as far as reporting it to their nature of being violent.

Looking at these accusations are they any real legitimate reasoning behind them or are there just someone trying to make cheap political gains. The problem with the politicans or the so called experts on the field are that they are taking about a medium knowledge about. Some have heard something one can possibly do in a game and on that basic call for a ban without having a deeper knowledge of the game industry. There are games that are violent the Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt series are extreme examples of these, and that is the reason they have received an age limit of 18 years. The problem with thw especially Grand Theft Auto is the realism of the game, in the newest version the game, this has been done with extreme care both in terms of graphic and physical laws. This might of course be a factor in smaller children having problems differentiate between the real world and the game world.

However as been stated these games have received age limits to prevent the children from playing these games. then it becomes the responibility of the parents to set the boundaries for their children in what they exposed to. In the same way these bounderies should be set in turns of movies and other media outlets where they receive raw violence, like the news. VG`s gaming editor Rune Fjell Olsen wrote striking blog about this in 2004 where he outlines exactly this, the parents should take more care of what their children are exposed to both in gaming and the media world as a whole.