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Videogames represent one of the fastest-growing parts of kids' media diet (Sweeting, 2005). Violence in video games is a rather new subject of discussion, yet it is a discussion of heated debate. Today, many people are worried about this ‘violence’ in our youth’s behavior.
Video games have become extremely popular over the last ten years, becoming one of children’s favorite activities. For example in a present study it was shown that adolescent boys play video games at an average of 13 hours a week whereas girls play for about 5 hours (Gentile, D. A. & Anderson, 2003). Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, games like Pong and Pac-man were thought of as harmless and were therefore accepted by the public. Then in the early 1990’s violent games such as Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter came to be played by children. These games portrayed realistic human like characters engaging in battle in which they fought until death. These violent video games now rule the market. In fact, in 1998 a sample was taken of 33 popular Sega and Nintendo video games. It was found that 80% of these games were violent in nature (University Of Iowa, 2007).

Many video games since then have taken this ‘violence’ to a much higher and extreme level. A great example would be the grand theft auto series. These games promote violence, killing, breaking the law, destruction as well as degradation of women. (Sweeting, 2005). As a matter of fact, Grand Theft Auto 3 was not sold in Australia because of its rampant violence. The video game industry has recognized that males seem to enjoy violent video games more than females and have heavily targeted their games toward males (McGrath, 2000).

Gentile & Anderson (2003), state that playing video games may increase aggressive behaviour because violent acts are continually repeated throughout the video game. This method of repetition has long been considered an effective teaching method in reinforcing learning patterns....