Is video game violence a real problem in todays youth?

Not if video game stores new how to check for IDs when little kids buy M rated games. There's a notion out there that any youngster who grabs hold of a violent video game will go out and cause a massacre. If you know your child is mentally unstable, it's not very wise to allow them to play violent video games. In partciular, shooting games. My brother got Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for his 17th birthday in 2003 (and this game ended up being one of my favorite games ever.) My mom didn't want me to play it but I watched my brother play it briefly and I really wanted to play it. Does that mean I wanted to kill people in reality? Of course not. Eventually, I played the game, only being 11 years old, and now look at me. I don't even have a criminal record. It just depends who plays the game. I've played the most violent video games and seen some brutal movies, but I'm not deranged. While I know I won't become a crazy person after playing these types of game, I abide by the law and settled with the fact that you had to be 17 years or older to buy an M rated game. All store clerks have to do is what's expected out of them and check the IDs of people who purchase an M rated game if they think the person may possibly be too young to purchase it. Of course, there have been plenty of stories where violent video games played roles in kids violent actions. There was even a big story about the game that I previously mentioned where a 17 year old killed a couple cops and said how "life is a video game ,everybody's got to die sometime." It would've been nice if somebody had let the moron know that everybody has to die sometime IN REALITY TOO, not just in video games. He was obviously an unstable human being. Moore was at the first age possible where he could buy a rated M game, 17. He could legally purchase the game, but his parents still should've noticed the negative impact it had on him. My parents didn't see me play Vice City. I think I tried to keep it confidential when I played it. I didn't want my parents to see me play it when I was 11 because of the violent things you can do such as kill people. So, if you hide it from your parents, most likely they won't know you're playing it but that doesn't take away all the liablity from your parents. If a teen becomes more interested in guns and violence, they should draw the suspicion that they've engaged themselves in violent media. I played Vice City all the time. I played it a lot particularlly from around 2003 - 2006. I beat the entire game and completed every thing I could possibly do in the game, and again, I don't even have a criminal record. There's 2 types of people who can do something about video games having very negative effects on teens; the store clerks and the parents. Ask for IDs when selling M rated games and parents should look at what they're kids are doing. Even if you hide it from them, they should see the change in your demeanor. Now, I'm 18 and when I turned 17, I wasn't immature and said, "Yes!!! Now I can buy every M rated game on the shelf!!" I simply continued playing the types of games I enjoy playing. If it was rated M, then so be it. I'm lucky enough to not be one of those unstable people who take pure entertainment the wrong way. If you're one of those people who do, get help immediately or I hope your parents notice it before you go out and decide to hurt people.