Artifact 6

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FAILING GRADES
Last month, the National Institute on Media and the Family released a "report card" on the video game industry. The group praised game makers for putting ratings on nearly all their products. (Ratings include "E" for everyone, "T" for teen players 13 and older, and "M" for MATURE, or older, players age 17 or older.) But the institute, along with U.S. Senators Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Herbert Kohl (D-Wis.), blasted the industry for marketing (trying to sell) violent video games to young people.
Some games are really "kill-for-fun murder simulations," said Dr. David Walsh, president of the institute. "Unfortunately, these games are very popular with children and teenagers."
Lieberman said that too many game makers place ads for rated-M games in places where young people are most likely to see them (such as in magazines for game players). Action figures based on game characters also make the games more popular among kids, Lieberman said.

'DON'T BLAME US'
Game makers deny trying to sell violent video games to young people. George Harrison, an executive at Nintendo of America, told WEEKLY READER that even if game makers had such a plan, it would be difficult to put in place. "For example," he said, "TV stations won't accept a game advertisement if it's not appropriate for the audience."
Many game makers say that keeping violent games away from kids is up to parents. "Parents have to monitor [watch out for] things they don't want in their homes," Harrison said.
Research shows that adults buy 90 percent of video games. But most adults know little or nothing about the games kids play. In fact, a recent poll found that fewer than 5 percent of parents had heard of the rated-M game Duke Nukem. But 80 percent of junior high students said they were familiar with the game.

They say that video games are too much like real life war. And how that affects kids.

FAKE VIOLENCE, REAL DAMAGE?
Many game makers also disagree with those who say that violent video and computer games are bad for kids.
"I grew up in the 1950s, when we all ran around in the woods and pretended we were fighting World War II," Harrison said. "Today, those games have moved from the woods into the family room."
There's little research that shows how violent video games affect kids. But many experts believe that the games teach young people to ignore the horrors of real-life violence. "These games and their awful ads blur the lines between right and wrong," Lieberman said. "They are not harmless fun, as some suggest."

BATTLE FOR A SOLUTION
Most agree that some video games simply are not for young people. But kids across the country continue playing the games even as grown-ups battle over solutions to the problem.