Videogames were a big innovation in the entertainment industry of the last years because it implied the creation of new techniques
and of a different market. Nowadays, the industry of
videogames is very developed and children and teenagers do not live without it. However, the subjects of these games are not always propper for children, there are even some expecifically for grown-ups which imply violence and sexuality.
The line between what is for
childreen and what is only for adults is a thin one and difficult to define. Are we really aware of what can create an armful impression in our childreen’s minds? Who has the capacity to decide what is for above 16, 18 or 21? Should not we be more careful about what videogames are created specifically for childreen and which ones are not?
Videogames are not “clean fun” as what is thought. They can be armful for childreen’s and personality even when they are allowed for that age. Also older people can be influenced by videogames.
Videogames have a big power of influence, mostly in childreen because they cannot easily distinguish fantasy from reality. As well as it happens with the cartoons, people identify themselves with the heroe and believe they are able of the same things as he/she. In the United States of America, some years ago, a child threw himself from a window after watching a cartoon, believing that (like the heroe) he could fly.
Violence in the videogames provokes disturbs in the mind of childreen and sensitive people. Games such as Grand Theft Auto have as a heroe a thief and murderer who can do the most amazing things to break the law. These type of games familiarize people with extreme bad attitudes what can create an illusion in their minds that these things are possible, allowed or natural. Childreen tend to see these characters as role models for their behavior which can create great personality disorders.
Nevertheless, there are people defending that violent videogames have warning about since what age they are allowed, in order to protect the children and teenagers.
People that define to what age the videogames are allowed have to be experienced psycologists that understand perfectly the effects of this or that feature in the game and not the producers or distributors of the game, because these have other interests: sales and profits.
Unless there is a bigger and better control of the videogames that are produced and sold, people will always be exposed to things that can influence them in acting wrong, against themselves and the society. Mostly with our childreen we should be very attentive so that their future lives are not affected and conditioned by what they saw videogames’ heroes doing with sych naturality.