According to a recent survey, nine out of ten U.S. households with
children have rented or owned a video or computer game
and nearly a third of the Top 100 video-console games for the first quarter of 1999 had at least some sort of
violent content. This paper looks at the effect these games have on the emotional, moral and social well-being of
children. The paper covers issues such as the gradual changing of the 'bad-guys' from monsters and imaginary characters to real people, thus legitimizing violent behavior, as well as looking at the link between violent video games and events such as the Columbine High School shooting. Finally, the paper looks at the possibility of banning these video games and the difficulties involved.