Video Games Scapegoat

ENGL 200
October 6, 2014
Video Game Violence: A Scapegoat for Disengaged Parents
Today’s youth live in a time where video games are a fixture of entertainment. Video game consoles are found in almost every home, including a child’s bedroom. I believe that the portrayal of violence in video games is not the reason for the increase of violent acts committed by and against youth. Parents and the government should understand it is not the fault of the game itself. Modern parents should be engaged in the messages their children are receiving from video games and the images they are allowing them to witness. Creating more laws and legislations surrounding the sale and content of video games will not provide the protection that parents think
It “did not find associations between electronic games use and conduct problems, which could reflect the lower exposure to games and/or greater parental restrictions on age-appropriate content for games” (Parkes,
Sweeting and Wright). Parents should determine what is right for their children and what is not.
The boundaries of every family are different and need to be enforced by the parents.
The creators and retailers of video games often become the scapegoat for lawmakers and government officials when a violent act occurs that involves or is perpetrated by youth. Parents rely on their legislators to take up their causes and seek out laws that will promote their cause.
Regulating video games on their behalf is one of those causes. Legislative bodies across the country are looking for ways to prevent incidences of violence, especially gun violence like what occurred in Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut and the movie theater in Aurora,
Colorado. The state of New Jersey outlined a plan last year that included measures to limit and restrict how retailers merchandise games in retail outlets and would require parental consent
I imagine most parents want to avoid that reaction from their child in a store. Creating legislation that the Supreme Court found infringes on the collective’s First Amendment rights or circumventing the current self-regulation of the video

game retailers is not the solution. Today’s parents should stop seeking a solution for interference outside of their own decisions as a parent by increasing legislation on games.
Parents to the next generation are severely taxed by the demands of day to day life. The one item that they cannot be relaxed about is the entertain they choose for their children. Buying a video game console and unleashing a child into the world of gaming is almost a rite of passage for parents, especially parents that grew up playing Super Mario Bros. It is unwise to do so without rules, boundaries, and some due diligence on their part. They should be educating themselves on the games and need to be reviewing game content information available from web sites like IGN.com. Parents should be supervising their kids playing the games that they may not be familiar with yet many do not. They should also be looking at what they can control in