What’s real and what’s not?
Today’s video game worlds are so detailed they give the player a realistic and rewarding experience that can compete with the best that films and literature have to offer. But are increasingly life-like computer games a good thing, especially those that are first-person games where the player takes an active role like pulling the trigger in armed battle?

Concerns about violence
This ‘cartoon violence’ may have been more acceptable with older cartoon characters but as characters have become more 'people like' - combined with bad language and realistic sound effects - concerns have been raised about links to aggressive behaviour and violence.

Certificate 18 for violence
Worried parents have welcomed computer game classification whereby games are given similar ratings to films, warning people of violent and sexual content. Games that fall outside the highest 18+ category are governed by the British Board of Film Classification and can be banned.

The research
There is no evidence at the moment linking an increase in computer game violence with aggressive or violent behaviour in children, but at the same time should it be acceptable for computer games to depict graphic scenes of violence? What lessons will players take from games like ‘Grand Theft Auto’, where players speed through city streets to reach their destination in the quickest time regardless of pedestrians in their way, or ‘Hooligans: Storms over Europe’, where men storm football pitches, fight rival gangs and attack police? Are these computer games blurring the difference between right and wrong?