Are video games dangerous??

Well, in my mind, the only thing dangerous about video games is the danger of someone not getting all their homework done on time. Yet, some people believe that video games are the reason kids become violent, angered, or mean. After the Columbine high school shootings people were trying to figure out a cause behind their shootings. They looked at video games as a culprit of instilling the violent aspect into the kids. Marilyn Manson was also blamed as a culprit, but I don't care about him anyway. I've read stories of kids who try to use swords because they played the Legend of Zelda, in which the main character uses a sword. There is one story I read in which one kid jumped on his brother's head because he saw it on Super Mario. These are probably worst case scenerios but they present a good question.

A good example of games that make you forget your homework is EverQuest. Parents television council reports that of those that play the game the average number of hours played a week is 20-30. That's a part time job! And, as they point out, that's an average number. There are those who play way more than the 20-30 hours of gameplay. So this really isn't a danger of a violent level but a danger of a personal, time management level.

There's some interesting, yet one-sided, information about dangers of video games here http://www.familyfriendlygaming.com/Dangers-of-video-games.html They talk about violence, epilepsy, warping the brain, causing brain damage, causing ADHD, addiction, exploitation of women, and linkage to obesity. As troubling as this all may sound, I believe there's a large agenda being pushed from this website in order to make video games seem worse that they actually are. So if you feel like looking at that link, BE WARNED.

My information about EverQuest came from http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/publications/rgcolumns/2003/0508.asp