*For my references, please see Part 2 of my hubs series on video games. While a large part of my information is also readily available on other sites, I have clearly cited them and in no way want to take credit for their work.

Do you think back fondly of your childhood days, playing Mario, Tetris, and maybe even a little Pong? Unfortunately, the world is a LOT different now than it was when we were children. We, as parents, can't use the excuse of "I played them as a kid, and I turned out fine" anymore. The technology that now creates these video games is much more advanced, and a lot of these games are incredibly life-like.

Did you know that the average preschooler in America watches 27 hours of TV a week! "The average child gets more one-on-one communication from TV than from all their parents and teachers combined" - Does that make you rethink about who/what has the most influence on the life of your child? Are YOU the parent, or do you let the media teach your children between right and wrong?

Lt. Col. Grossman says, "Something very similar to this desensitization toward violence is happening to our children through violence in the media--but instead of 18-year-olds, it begins at the age of 18 months when a child is first able to discern what is happening on television. At that age, a child can watch something happening on television and mimic that action. But it isn't until children are six or seven years old that the part of the brain kicks in that lets them understand where information comes from. Even though young children have some understanding of what it means to pretend, they are developmentally unable to distinguish clearly between fantasy and reality.

When young children see somebody shot, stabbed, raped, brutalized, degraded, or murdered on TV, to them it is as though it were actually happening... Sure, they are told: 'Hey, it's all for fun. Look, this isn't real, it's just TV.' And they nod their little heads and say, 'okay.' But they can't tell the difference...The Journal of the American Medical Association published the definitive epidemiological study on the impact of TV violence. The research demonstrated what happened in numerous nations after television made its appearance as compared to nations and regions without TV. The two nations or regions being compared are demographically and ethnically identical; only one variable is different: the presence of television. In every nation, region, or city with television, there is an immediate explosion of violence on the playground, and within 15 years there is a doubling of the murder rate. Why 15 years? That is how long it takes for the brutalization of a three-to five-year-old to reach the 'prime crime age.' That is how long it takes for you to reap what you have sown when you brutalize and desensitize a three-year-old."

A study by The Indiana University School of Medicine found that,

* Normal adolescents who had a higher level of violent media eposure had reduced levels of cognitive brain function. The more violence they saw, the less the thinking, learning, reasoning and emotional control area of the brain was active.

* Normal adolescents who had less violent media exposure had more thinking, learning, reasoning and emotional control activity.

* Aggressive behavior can be associated with a higher degree of violent media exposure.

* Aggressive adolescents show less cognitive brain activity than normal adolescents do. Aggressive adolescents demonstrate less thinking, learning, reasoning and emotional control.

* On some tasks normal adolscents with high violent media exposure showed the same pattern of brain activity as adolescents with Disruptive Behavior Disorder (DBD).

* There is a correlation between the degree of exposure to television/movie violence and violence in video games and normal brain function. (For more information on this study, click: Here- The site itself looks kinda "hokey" due to probably being low budget, but the data and information is sound.)

If you notice the photo included, in the study mentioned above they took brain scans of adolescents brains with low and high video media exposure. The scan on the left is LOW violent media exposure, and the scan on the right is HIGH media exposure. The red spots? That's brain activity.

Additionally disturbing, as Lt. Col. Grossman relates, "A CBS executive told me his plan. He knows all about the link between media and violence. His own in-house people have advised him to protect his child from the poison his [own] industry is bringing to America's children. He is not going to expose his child to TV until she's old enough to learn how to read." If CBS executives aren't allowing their own children to watch anything violence related that comes from the media, why would we?

So now that I've thoroughly bombarded you with scientific data and information from highly respected experts in their fields about the effects of violent media (games) exposure, have you been able to answer my questions posed in Part 1? Is it worth the risk? Is it worth finding out that all I have presented to you is correct? Do you really want to raise a killer with great hand/eye coordination?

End of Part 3

Please continue to Part 4 for my conclusions.