Monkey see, monkey do.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/31/AR2007103100409.html

http://wii.ign.com/articles/831/831257c.html

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=051129223726.dqn74ka0&show_article=1


What if I were to say to you that there is a program designed to turn someone into an aggressive, and brutish, yet intelligent, and flawless killer? Should such a thing that could cause someone to turn to a life of violence, be destroyed? And what if I were to tell you that this new breed of killers, were children? Would you blame the children, for making such bad decisions, or would the blame be cast on the parents, for not paying better attention to their child’s issues?
Movies, television, and last but not least video games have all attributed “supposedly” to causing violence in people younger than the age of 18. Everyday there is a new report of some crazy kid who played a mission on grand theft auto, then went outside and started shooting at cars with his dad’s hunting rifle. School shootings are usually thought of to be brought on by the child not fitting in at school, then going home and popping some Marylyn Manson into their ipod. However what if the destruction was so bad, that it could even be considered an act of terrorism?
Something that bad did in fact occur, in California when 21 homes, spread out across 38,000 acres were consumed by fire. As of recent a young boy under the age of 13, stepped forward to the L.A. County Sheriffs Department and admitted to using some matches to start the fire. I personally find it funny that it was only a child, since Governor Schwarzenegger had just said in a press conference “We are going to hunt down whoever did this, and make them pay.” If I were that little boy I would have been scarred to death knowing the terminator was out to get me, in fact I find it admirable for him to come forward and have the bravery to take blame for it. Yet who should we be mad at, the boy, his parents, or some videogame he picked up?
Hillary Clinton has put out a new legislation that would make it illegal and punishable as a crime, for anyone to sell, or rent an M rated game to someone under the age of 18. Everyone knows the typical gaming type, titles such as Grand Theft Auto which are renowned for their language, sex, and violence, are probably not going to change. However the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) has gone after any other games they see as to adult oriented.
The latest game is called Manhunt 2. I myself have played through Manhunt 1, and I can tell you that the reason why this game would frighten parents is because of the gruesome ways you are allowed to kill you’re enemies with. Things like putting a plastic bag over their face and suffocating them, or putting a syringe through their eye were all possible and easy to do in Manhunt 1. For Manhunt 2 however, there are still the same options of execution, however during the actual killing process the ESRB took the game down from an AO (Adult Only game) to an M (Mature) by adding a blur effect during the game killings scenes. You still hear the bone crunching noises, and you can possibly make out shapes, but it is now difficult to make out what is actually going on.
This of course has infuriated the videogame audience who are now boycotting the game buy not purchasing it. I for one think their intentions are good, as if they just let this slide the ESRB would just tally this as another victory against the war on videogames. However by not purchasing the game, you are hurting the wrong people, you are hurting the makers of the game, who never wanted the ESRB to add the damn blur effects to the O so satisfying kill scenes.
I for one would enjoy coming home at the end of a hard day, and being able to simulate through a videogame beating up the guy who cut me off on the way home. Yet that is OK for me because I am 19 years old! These little kids nowadays should not be doing such kind of things because their minds will register it improperly and they may go out and do it. So to end my commentary, my point is this. The parents instead of wanting to just get rid of violent videogames all together should just have the courage to tell their children, “NO you cannot have this because you are not ready for it”. When the kid reaches 18, let them play whatever they want, but until then use the best judgment possible in what they can have as entertainment. All because they are still young and new to the world and may like SO many other children copy what they have seen in a movie, or game. Monkey see, monkey do.