Snohomish County Children's Commission

No matter your attitude toward violent
media, the proliferation of violent video
games has permeated our popular
culture, teaching our children to
embrace violence as a way of life.
Parents who would never invite a
serial murderer to dine with their family
regularly allow their children to interact
with virtual killers whenever they turn
on the Playstation.

Families that espouse equality as a core
value are seriously undermined when
their children are being conditioned to
harm women and view minorities as
thugs, thieves and drug dealers as depicted in today's most popular video games.

What began in the arcades as a misshapen blob of
black and white pixels running over stick figures in
1976' Death Race, has evolved into interactive
simulators that require real-life jabs, punches and
chopping motions to execute kills and grotesque
finishing moves on the Nintendo Wii's "Manhunt 2"
and "Mortal Kombat: Armageddon." It's an issue that
recently garnered congressional attention. Senators
Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Evan
Bayh (D-IN) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) called for
an overhaul of the current Entertainment Software
Ratings Board (ESRB) ratings system. In a letter
written to the ESRB, the senators made known their concern for how games on the
Nintendo Wii are rated due to the nature of its motion-sensing controller.

"That system permits children to act out each of the many graphic torture scenes and
murders in Manhunt 2 rather than simply manipulating a game pad," wrote the
senators. "This led one clinical psychologist to state that the realistic motions used
with the Wii mean that 'You're basically teaching a child the behavioral sequencing of
killing."

To date, nearly 40 different studies have shown a consistent pattern of results:
Playing violent video games can increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and
behavior in both laboratory settings and actual life.

In "Stop Teaching our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie, and Video Game
Violence," Pulitzer Prize nominated Lt. Col. (retired) Dave Grossman wrote, "There are
three things you need in order to shoot and kill effectively and efficiently. From a
soldier in Vietnam to an eleven-year-old in Jonesboro. First, you need a gun. Next you
need the skill to hit a target with that gun. And finally you need the will to use that
gun.

Today soldiers learn to fire at realistic, man-shaped
silhouettes that pop up in their field of vision. This
'simulated' human being is the conditioning stimulus.
The conditioned response is to shoot the target
and then it drops. Stimulus-response, stimulus-
response, stimulus response - soldiers and police
officers experience hundreds of repetitions of this.
Later, when they're out on the battlefield or walking
a beat and someone pops up with a gun, reflexively
they will shoot and shoot to kill." Grossman concluded, "Now these simulators are in
our homes and arcades-in the form of violent
video games!

If you don't believe us, you should know that one of
the most effective and widely used simulators
developed by the United States Army in recent years is nothing more than a modified
Nintendo game."

What can you do to keep your children safe from videogame violence? Know what
they're playing by playing the games with them. You're the best judge about what's
appropriate for your family. And, encourage your local video retailers to use and
enforce the ratings.