Winter/Spring 1999

THE THRILL OF
THE VIRTUAL KILL
By Daphne White, Executive Director

Video game manufacturers are now targeting ever-younger children with ads for ever-more-violent fare. As parents, many of us are unaware of this marketing campaign aimed at children. Here are some examples:

"Meet people from all over the world, then kill them." -- an ad for Subspace, an on-line game rated K-A (Kid to Adult.)

"More fun than shooting your neighbor's cat." -- an ad for Point Blank, rated T for Teen.

"Let the slaughter begin" -- an ad for Destrega, rated T.

While you may not have seen ads such as these, your children probably have. The ads appear in some surprising places -- such as Sports Illustrated for Kids -- as well as in gaming magazines. With well-placed ads such as these, it should not be surprising that most middle- and high-school age boys gravitate to violent games.

When I started researching violent video games, my son -- who was 10 and owned no violent games -- asked helpfully, "Mom, would you like me to download Blood or Thrill Kill off the internet for you?" I had no idea these games existed -- and even less that my child could download "demos" for free off the internet.

David Walsh, executive director of the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF), suggests that calling these ultra-violent programs "games" is misleading. They would more appropriately be called "kill-for-fun murder simulations," Walsh said in issuing his groups 1998 Video and Computer Game Report Card. "The fact that they are called 'games' probably leads some parents to believe there is no need for supervision," Walsh added.