Funny thing, I'm 29, been playing video games for in and around 19 years now, Ive been playing violent ones since I was in my mid teens. I see more realistic violence on the TV when I watch the news, when I go onto youtube or watch the Euronews channels at night when they show actual bombing victims moments after the bombs exploded.

Heres the funny thing, I'm "desensitized" to violence for one reason only, other then being beaten up Ive never actually had any real or direct contact with it, I cant be sensitive to something I've no experience with. I still hate seeing people hurt, the thought of people being bullied annoys me greatly, the idea of children being raped or violently beaten angers me, yet I feel nothing when I punch a guys head off in a game, you know why? Because its a big old bunch of pixels on my screen, why would I feel bad for them? What they should be worried about are people who get upset when the things on screen get hurt, when they are relating to and having feelings for computer generated beings, isnt that a little more annoying, when you care MORE about a pixelated character then you do about other people. Maybe these people are good at drawing the line between gaming and real life, isnt that what we want??

The sleep thing is obvious to, your mind is constantly running, thinking of what you can do or should have done, much like people exhausted after a test, it might be over but they stay up late into the night thinking about what they did wrong, what they could have done better.

Right now, you bring ALL those 13-15 year olds out and you kick a dog to death in front of them and they will all cry, ok maybe one or two wont but thats a percentage chance you take with groups of people in that age. Jim Sterling made a fantastic video on this subject a while ago, aimed at gamers, where he showed actual video footage of a politician blowing his brains out on TV, the response he got to it was unreal, with people telling him how horrible it was, how terrible he was to show it and how disgusting it was. THAT is violence, we can advanced machines, some of us even know how to split reality from fiction.

You take any 20-25 year olds in and do the same study you'd get vastly different results. I was once a teenager and at that age I barely gave two shits out getting up in the morning, let alone my fellow man, its called hormones. Thats why everyone hates teenagers, they are emotional wastelands, the men are so busy trying to impress the women that they'd strangle a cat if they thought it'd get a girls attention.

Using video games as a scapegoat is just a new trend, because its easier now to track video game sales then it is music sales due to digital distribution and "illegal" sharing of music. What was once Rocks and Metals fault is now Gears of War and Call of Duties fault. Like I said, you turn on any news channel and you will see way more, and harder hitting REALISTIC violence and I challenge you to show any teenager someone having their leg blown off by a land mine and tell me they are desensitized.