According to Patrick Masell, recently the media has bombarded Americans with images and stories concerning a popular and morally corrupt video game called “Grand Theft Auto.” GTA 3 and its sequel GTA: Vice City has sparked record sales as well as protests and news reports across the globe. Most of these reports and protests question the game’s graphic content and the effects it may have on its audience, especially teenagers.
However, GTA was not the first series of video games to create such a stir in this country. “Mortal Kombat” a fighting game known for its amount of blood and gore deaths, hit arcades in 1992 and home consoles the next year. The question of how graphic violence in video games influences this nation’s youth have been debated for over a decade. Violent video games have few, if any, adverse effects on the vast majority of its audience and those who are negatively influenced often are unstable to begin with.
Two features of video games fuel renewed interest by researchers, public policy makers, and the general public. First, the active role required by video games is a double-edged sword. It helps educational...