Stop blaming video games for violent behavior

" I agree...video games and movies are not the problem though I think there are extreme games that parents should not allow their kids to play because of the very adult content and criminal lessons they teach like Grand Theft Auto. They're just not appropriate for children just like rated X movies are not appropriate for them.

The real problem is poor parenting. I am a former teacher and some of the parenting (or more precisely lack thereof) that I witnessed made me sick. I ended up taking a long break from teaching and becoming a stay at home mom because so many of these kids were so out of control and the schools had their hands tied on what they could do to discipline them and when I or the admin would call the parents, the parents would make all kinds of excuses for their child and defend their child's actions and blame the teacher and school. Once I had a child in my 5th grade class glue pieces of yarn he'd stolen from art class to my sweater when I had my back to him helping another child in the next row. I caught him doing it, the vice principal even found the glue bottle still dripping and with pieces of yarn stuck to it and the yarn in his desk...when the parent was called, she had the audacity to say that either me or the VP had "set her son up" and "framed" him!! I'd say probably 80% of my class each year would come to school saying that they were told by their parents that if anyone "messed" with them at school they had been told by their parent to beat that kid up...and when the parents were questioned about it, they'd affirm they'd said that and meant it. How are you supposed to teach kids how to act and handle situations peacefully when the parents are working against you every step of the way and sending a totally different message to their children? It just got too stressful and depressing to go to work everyday.

Heck, when I was a kid, I knew if I got in trouble in school, I was going to get it double when I got home and no excuse I could give was going to save my butt. I VERY rarely got in trouble at school and had all my credits for graduation early, took college courses while still in high school, and graduated with honors, imagine that. We have too many parents that are more interested in being their kid's friend or buddy than their parent. They don't have the guts to be the "bad guy" and discipline their child or set rules and expectations and enforce them or they're too busy and wrapped up in their own life to pay attention and do those things.. We have too many people making bad decisions by sleeping around outside a strong commited relationship and getting pregnant unintentionally and the kid grows up without a strong family bond. Thus we have way too many parents who are totally absent from their child's lives and parents that are just terrible role models for their children, parents that are really immature children in adult bodies. We also have too many people having lots of kids by different people and often at too young an age that don't have the financial means or the emotional capacity and maturity to care for them. I know of one woman that has had 2 kids by two different men in less than 2 years and she's only just turned 19, unemployed, no education beyond what will get her a job flipping burgers, and wants another! You can probably guess how those kids are going to turn out barring a miracle, which I admit does happen, but not often.

When I was a kid, I watched some rated R movies but always with my parents there and I was brought up to know the difference between reality and fantasy. I was brought up to know that when an actor on TV gets "shot" he gets up after the director yells cut but in real life, people who are shot don't. I do censor some of what my children watch on TV and movies, but I'm not someone who only allows their kids to watch Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Train...I don't shield them from the world, but when they watch something that does contain some more mature content, I'm there to explain it to them and talk to them about it. My children do play video games, but they definitely know the difference between hacking up a goblin with a sword in a video game and doing that to a person in real life and often myself or my husband play these games with them. Frankly, I'd much rather see kids and teens taking out their aggressions through the use of a video game and getting it out of their system than taking those aggressions out on real people. It's many times lack of parenting and guidance that leads some kids to not see the difference between one and the other and to lack the empathy necessary to hold themselves back from being violent towards another. "

" I have to agree to an extent. I think too many parents want to point the blame at everyone but themselves. It is the parents' job to teach them right and wrong and pray that their children will do the right thing. Blaming video games for their children's mistakes is ridiculous. Where the problem lies is when the parents ignore their children while they watch R rated movies and play violent games and then don't talk to them about it. When the TV becomes the parent, the children lose out. Not all kids are dumb enough to think that because they played a video game that was fun to kill people that means that it is the same in real life. "