The Ethics of Violence in Computer Games :: Technology Essays

The Ethics of abandon in Computer GamesViolence in goggle box games was never a hot topic until April 20th, 1999. After the Columbine High School stroke rocked the landed estate with its unbelievable random brutality, a shocked nation searched for answers. at that place must have been some reason for Eric Harris and Dylan Klebolds bloody rampage. The nation needed a scapegoat for this horrible event, something to take the blame. A kettle of fish of the blame landed on the media, the music manufacture, and violent word picture games. The disceptation over how video games influence kids still continues. There be some opinions on how baneful or harmless video games really are. Recently, numerous legislators inspectm to have decided that video games are, in fact, very harmful to kids. Legislation is currently being created to restrict and censor violent video games. Traditionally, parents have been the ones responsible and in control of what their children were exposed to o n the computer. like a shot legislators want to govern what kids are exposed to rather than trust this clientele to the parents. This is a departure from how other forms of media are governed. Kids are legally allowed to deal any(prenominal) kind of music regardless of agnate advisories and to view any kind of violence on TV. It is the parents job to determine if their kids are allowed to take care to that music or watch that TV. It should remain the same way with video games. It is unethical to take these choices out of the parents hands. It is the parents responsibility and right to raise their children how they see fit. However, the industry also has an important role to play. The music industry puts parental advisories on music content parents may find inappropriate and parents are informed of channel content when they sign up for cable. Likewise, the game industry needs to improve upon their methods of informing parents of the content in their games. Parents should be res ponsible for regulating the types of games their kids are exposed to, however, the video game industry has a responsibility to accurately and honestly communicate the level of violence represent in their games. The effects of video games on kids is a relatively bare-assed topic of research. Initialstudies have resulted in inconclusive and conflicting results. virtually researchers have simply decided that video games should have the same prejudicial effect on children as TV does, since the two mediums appear to be so similar.