My Names is Michael James Allen; I was born in a small town called Bedford, in the county of Bedford, England and want to get a point across regarding Violence in games.

To me this is such a dividing issue in society today but I think we are blaming the wrong people.

There are those who think that games need a harsher form of control over content and to some extent I would agree.  As society becomes morally worse and worse, the products that it produces is getting worse and worse.  There will come a time when content reaches a level that even I will refuse to partake.

The thing is; that I am able to do so; I don't think that my opinion has such an impact on society that everyone will copy me; I hope society has enough common sense and wisdom to make their own minds up about this issue.  I hope that society has enough intelligence to make up their own minds and to realise that the age rating system is there for a reason.  The ratings system is their to aid you in your purchase and make you aware what is or is not suitable for children.

The trouble is that society as a whole (not everyone) seems to lack an ability to think for itself.  Why bother with the welfare of their children, when they can dump the ills of society on someone's else's lap.  Well; maybe if parents took an interest in the well being of their children, their entertainment and started to try and control what they did; their never would have been any shootings at school.

I think the problem with those who run countries, is that they are so old and out of touch that they no longer remember what it was like to be a child.  They forget that a child is susceptible to everything they read, see and hear.  It is a myopic view of life to think that a single form of media could push a child over the edge.  I have seen real dead bodies on the news and to me, that had a greater effect on myself than any computer game.  It is true that games did influence me but no games has had the same affect as  movie; no story was ever as deep as a book and no piece of music was a good as a proper band.

I think the bottom line is that parents need to realise that an 18 rated game is not suitable for a child and should not bought for it.  Don't blame the shop who sold it to you.  You're an adult and if you lack the intelligence to realise this fact, then maybe you should not have had children either.

I think the problem with violence in games is, that it is a problem that goes deep in the psyche of society.  This has nothing to do with games or violence, but the fact that no one wants to take responsibility for their lives.  They get themselves in debt beyond their means and declare bankruptcy; they dump their children on nannies, they think they have a right to do anything they like and someone else will pick up the pieces.  They lack initiative and don't deal with problems themselves.  There is always a reason to justify their actions.

While people choose to fob their problems off on someone or something else, we will always have a high school level mentally collectively and will always try to find a scapegoat for our actions.  If you think that removing violent games of the shelf will get rid of the crimes of society, or even have any effect; you are fooling yourselves. 

Take responsibility for your lives and stop blaming others for the mess you make of it.