The effects of violent video games

The other hundreds of messages carry antisocial values, however humorously presented, that make for a more unpleasant community to live in, indeed, hardly a civilised one. While a few episodes of black and sick humour make for fun and contrast, sheer weight of numbers and repetition of cynicism make an impressive imbalance that can teach lasting lessons. The remaining categories in this analysis are:

1. Gradual accustomization from carrying out oneself cruel actions in a game.

2. Appetite grows by what it feeds on. People who like watching violence need ever greater violence to satisfy their tastes. Violence becomes too familiar to them.

3. Callousness grows in people who would not carry out the violence themselves. This can even be noticed in professional critics of videos and films.

4. Anti-social morality is necessary

5. Be callous

6. Be cautious - be excessively cautious

7. Be obedient and do not be an independent thinker

8. Never be curious about anything.

9. Never be brave

10. Never trust anyone

11. Never try to help others

12. Nobody else will help you

13. Things are sure to go wrong -hopelessness is inevitable

14. You do not have control over your own identity or future.

Where are teenagers learning any different morality? Is there evidence in many lives that these values are being absorbed without actually murdering anyone? There are 870 messages like these. Although the teenagers who made this compilation may have just been being cynical, we could consider, as the horror-viewers become adult, how many of these values are now appearing publicly on the American social and political scene - and possibly in other places too.

The weight of the negative messages that young people are being given in their entertainment far outweighs the positive. We see the results in their behaviour as adults.

What is the definition of 'adult' that we place before them, if it consists in obtaining pleasure from cruelty and license?