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Opinion

Education should precede play

Reid Midgett
Opinion Columnist

For as long as this great country has been around, our society has been effective in finding a scapegoat to blame our woes. For colonial America, we blamed witchcraft and accused old, single women of causing the downfall of our morals. 

As new technology arose, it was blamed for the violence and degradation of our great American society. Books were thought to give people radical ideas, and often are still censored to this day. Radio caused children to sit idly and listen when they should be doing housework, television began to rot the minds of America's youth and music throughout the last few decades has been blamed for telling us to be violent and do drugs. Charles Manson, the infamous serial killer of the late 1960s, stated that the Beatles' White Album was an inspiration in his spiral into insanity.

And now we have found a new scapegoat for the violent actions of today's youth. The interactive medium known as video games is constantly under attack from politicians and parents alike for corrupting our children. Parents are suing game companies for putting violent content into their games while politicians are try to censor the games we play. They say children have access to this violent content, and it influences them to exercise violence and other immoral acts.

However, the argument that these parents have, that game companies design violent games intended for children, is inherently flawed. Every video game that contains adult content is clearly marked that the game is for those that are at least 17 years old. These violent video games are created for an adult audience that understands that the content displayed on screen does not translate to real life. The problem does not lie in the hands of the developers. Children cannot obtain these games without an adult buying it for them. 

Parents blame the companies and the stores that create and sell the games their children play. They buy their child a violent video game intended for adults, and then turn around and blame the game developer for implementing the violent content into the game and marketing it to children. This is the same as buying your child a pornographic magazine, then getting angry with the magazine publisher for putting pornographic content in its magazines. 

Did parents take into account that studies have shown there is no correlation between violence in video games and violence in real-life situations? Or that their children shouldn't have these games in the first place? Or do they choose to ignore these facts and sue these companies without first examining their own parenting abilities?

Parents need to take responsibility for their children and monitor what they play, and in the event that they do play a game with adult themes, make sure they understand what is on the screen should not be mimicked. This issue affects gamers of all ages, as politicians are constantly trying to push policy that will limit our rights as responsible gamers.

We need to stand up for our right to play the games we want to play, and the first step is educating parents that it is their responsibility to keep their children from violent video games. Game companies do their part to label their games, and it is time for parents to do their part.

Midgett, an opinion columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at onenationunderlink@gmail.com.