Video games have become an $11.7 billion dollar industry in America — currently generating more revenue than movies. But the content of many best-selling video games are full of explicit sex and violence, leading many parents and lawmakers to call for new crackdowns. Kim Lawton looks at the controversial debate over the values being promoted through video games and what legislative measures some states are taking to prevent the marketing of violent games to children.

Some argue that the games ultimately can provide valuable lessons to kids. According to Professor Henry Jenkins at MIT, “What it potentially does is introduce a notion of choice and consequences. And I think this is a very moral and ethical question.” But critics such as Daphne White, one of the nation’s leading crusaders against violent entertainment, says such games desensitize kids to violence: “The messages for most of these games, especially the ones young boys are playing, are: violence is fun; violence is entertaining … When you spend hours playing these games, you are getting those kinds of ideas in your head, as opposed to ideas of empathy, compassion, values of helping people, or doing anything socially constructive.” (Rebroadcast from May 30, 2003)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week639/cover.html