Video games have become an integral part of most people’s life particularly in advanced countries. Though games like SimCity, Tactical Iraqi have been credited with adding a lot of positive traits to a person’s character, there have been also many like Aliens Vs Predator, Fallout 3, Mass Effect which have been highly criticized for inducing violence particularly in children. In fact the level of violence in some of the videogames has even prompted governments to enforce a ban effective in their jurisdiction. Such bans are not only restricted to conservative governments, but governments of developed nations such as Australia, Singapore and Japan have also ordered such bans.

Australia seems to have banned the largest number of games whereas the United States, France, and Canada do not seem to have banned even a single game citing greater freedom of speech and expression. The research work carried by the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health, The Journal of Adolescent Health, and The British Medical Journal have indicated that there is no rigorous scientific proof which would corroborate the hypothesis that these video games do induce violent activity among the youth.

However, there have been numerous books like Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents, Grand Theft Childhood which present arguments on how the violence from games can easily creep into a society. Also, there have been some real life incidents like The Columbine High School Massacre whose perpetrators have been alleged to have been addicted to the videogame Doom, the Spanish incident in which a teenager murdered his father, mother and sister and was addicted to the video game Final Fantasy VIII. A list of such real life incidents with appropriate references is maintained at Wikipedia with the video-game Grand Theft Auto figuring in many of these incidents.

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