Rockstar's Bully Unveiled for the Playstation 2, Raises Questions About Media, Bullying, and Parental Roles

Rockstar Games, those purveyors of gratuitous violence in their Grand Theft Auto video game series, have come out with a new video game called Bully. Bully revolves around a maligned boarding school student named Jimmy Hopkins, who is left in the rough-and-tumble Bullworth Academy for a year by his neglectful mother. Jimmy must survive bullies, bad education, and all of the other difficulties of adolescence for the year. As well, the character of Jimmy can move up or down the social ladder based on the game player's approach to various situations. If Jimmy is able to take down bully after bully and assert himself, he heads to the top of the social food chain.

While no one can accuse Rockstar of being delicate about drugs, violence, sexism, or any number of other social situations, the reactions by parent's groups and others over this game's sale are out of line. Frank Bolanos, a Miami-Dade county board member who wanted the game banned, said that it is purely profit-driven exploitation of school house violence. Attorney Jack Thompson of Florida put up a strong fight on behalf of families who were worried about the rise in school violence in correlation to playing Bully. However, Thompson and Bolanos have been rebuffed by a Florida circuit court judge, who played the game and decided on October 15th that there was nothing in the game that would prevent its sale in Florida.

To answer Bolanos' concern that Rockstar is exploitative of school violence in Bully, my answer is that media doesn't drive up school violence but reflects its place in society. While I have no love for mainstream media, I can't imagine a backroom meeting of network, Internet, and print media moguls in which they decide that inciting school violence is in their best interest. Rather, when television shows and movies depict school violence and bullying, it is after such acts have taken place. If Bolanos and others who want to censor video games because of violent content, they should look in the mirror and ask themselves if inattentive parenting or bad school counseling have anything to do with violent acts. As well, they need to think of better ways to remedy school violence than banning video games which are often releases for teenage angst.

As well, Bolanos' criticism of Rockstar Games as profit driven is about five years too late. If Bolanos and Thompson wanted to stop Rock Star Games from infiltrating American communities, they should have protested the release of Grand Theft Auto 3 in 2001. Rockstar Games is now ubiquitous in the gaming world and its Grand Theft Auto series is a staple in most gamer's collections. As well, the game is rated Teen by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which means that it has been reviewed by the ratings body of all video and computer games to be appropriate for those 13 and older. If parents of teenagers between 13 and 18 want to stop their kids from having these games, more power to them. However, it is inappropriate to take the game off of the shelves simply because a few lawyers and leaders want to homogenize entertainment and shelter kids from violent video games.

If conservatives and prudes alike want to stop their kids from playing video games, they need to do so in the comfort and safety of their own home. However, the marketplace is not the place to do parenting and kids deal with all sorts of adversity in their daily lives in grade and high school. If they can't handle a little violence or crude language in their video games, then they need guidance from parents and school counselors to be better equipped to deal with the real world. For those who think Bully is disgusting or abhorrent, they can refuse to spend their $40 to purchase it for their kids. However, preventing adults and those of age to play these video games wreaks of overreaching paternalism and censorship by the government