Hell On Earth: Sex, Drugs, Mayhem and Murder in Los Santos
22August

Hell On Earth: Sex, Drugs, Mayhem and Murder in Los Santos

Written by Logan Mazzettia, Posted on , in Section Teens & Tweens

You don't need a study to tell you that a game that lets you pump a bunch of lead into an old lady's chest, steal her car, run over a cop, drive it off a cliff into the ocean, swim up to a boat, beat it's owner to death and ride off into the sunset, is going to have at least some effect on the teens who play it.

Grand Theft Auto V

(five) made a billion dollars in the first three days of its release. It is the fastest selling video game of all time, and certainly on track to become one of the highest selling. And yet, this video game could basically have been designed by a demon, given what's involved in the gameplay.

All of the Grand Theft Auto games have been extreme, but this one takes the gameplay to stunning new lows of immorality.

Studies have shown that teens who play violent video games are more likely to have aggressive fantasies and are more likely to be the victims of violence. Studies that determine whether or not violent video games lead directly to violent actions are inconclusive. However, much of the media we consume does inform our values. Playing a game that makes psychopathic mayhem so easily attainable cannot possibly have any beneficial effect on teens. Sure, studies may not yet have been able to make a causal connection between violent video games and real life violence, but take for instance the fact that nearly all of the high profile mass shooters in America during these last few years have all been huge fans of very violent video games, as recently as Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis.

Teen's Have Not Yet Internalized the Values They Need To Fully Understand The Serious Consequences That Characters In Violent Video Games Escape Scot Free From

Teenagers are impressionable. I defy you to tell me that they would not be negatively affected by a game that allows you to torture people by pulling their teeth out, and then to continue torturing them with electric shocks, to hire the services of a prostitute and then beat her to death. How could this game not have an effect on teen values?

How can we tolerate letting our teen children becoming desensitized to this kind of brutality?

What does it say about our culture that we're even talking about this?