If your kids play to gta iv only learn how to boring with games.

GTA4 + Wii Fit = GTA Personal Trainer. You know it's going to happen.

surely no-one can deny that videogames dont infleunce us - when SMG first came out I was playing it all day and later on I was making an omelette for the Wife and I when I trod on a mushroom.

Also when the Wife got Nintendogs for the DS that very same day not only did she feed our real life dog but she also groomed, bathed and walked it.

Case Closed as far as i'm concerned

 Are you sure? In the USA soldiers have a higher rate of divorce. They also have a higher incidence of domestic violence. The two may be correlated. I don't know. How would you assess that?

Wouldn't we see a significant increase in the murder or violent crime rate as a result of this new legion of "trained killers"?

I saw Glen Beck last night (when he did this story) and what I can say is that his portion of the argument was one-sided but generally fair ... The unfortunate problem was he brought Jack Tompson on and let him make wild claims without backing them up.

The truth is that videogames have been used by the military to increase their soldiers willingness to kill other soldiers, it has been amazingly successful; but at the same time it has not eliminated the morality of the soldiers, and many soldiers suffer far worse PTSD because (after the fact) it occurs to them what they have done.

In general, the show was not calling for a banning of videogames (or of people buying GTA) but did question whether GTA should have received an Adult Only rating which is a fair question given the content of GTA.

I watched some of this with my mum last night...
it was funny they show clips of Niko killing prostitutes and all that, trying to bring the worst outta the game

Uh, it's not fair at all. GTA is not used by the government as a simulator for anything. Beck did not describe the mission-based software that the government uses. What did they use after WW2? Pong? Give me a break. GTA is no worse than a lot of R-rated movies. It does not deserve an NC-17 rating (which is the equivalent of Adult). The only thing Beck got right is that videogames are no different than other forms of pop culture. GTA is not a murder simulator. There is no research to back up that playing any kind of videogame leads to more violent behavior. In fact, there is evidence showing the opposite to be true.

America's Army was developed by the US Army because they (desperately) needed to update the technology behind their simulators, decided to move upto the Unreal 2 Engine, and wrote off a lot of the expense as a recruitment tool. From what I understand most of the simulations used by the Army are based off of America's Army which is far (FAR) less graphic than Grand Theft Auto.

Beyond that, it is fair to question whether any content deserves the rating that it currently receives; the ESRB should be able to justify why it gave Grand Theft Auto a "Mature" rating, while it gave Manhunt 2 and Oblivion an "Adult Only" rating.

One last thing to consider is whether a lot of R rated movies do not deserve higher ratings; over the past decade I have been very aware of a lot of "Rating Creep" where content that used to justify a PG-13 rating is showing up in G rated movies, and content that would justify a NC-17 movie is showing up in R rated movies. This is not saying these movies need to be re-rated, but it is fair to ask why the standards have changed and how much further they will change in the near future.

I can see how games like this might effect some people.

I remember myself as a child first seeing star wars or Superman and coming out of the cinema pretending to be Suprman flying through the air or luke with his light saber.

I also remember well the Power Ranger craze and how some children got very carried away with acting it out to the point of injuring other children.

So undoubtedly games like this could effect some, especially teenagers and young adults even into their 20s that haven't had good morals, values and a sense of reality installed in them by parents throughout their lives.

You can't however not release a movie or game just because it might cause a few to go too far and commit criminal offences, but it is a concern these days to see so many parents that seem content to allow their children to bring themelves up with little or no support, values or guidance.