According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) studies show that playing violent video games increases aggressive and argumentative behavior in children, especially children with ADD or ADHD. Playing the violent video games is vastly different from watching violence on television and in movies. The interactive involvement in the acting out of a video game can increase aggressive and argumentative behavior in children, especially younger boys.

A local board certified child psychiatrist is especially adamant that violent video games be avoided for the ADHD boys. As he points out, a child with ADHD is already fully energized and rearing to go, and by allowing him to play rapid action and realistic video games, it is like adding fuel to an already burning fire.

In the United States, video games are required to be labeled with one of the six ratings listed below. This shows parents what the content is for each game.

•EC, which stands for Early Childhood is content appropriate for ages 3 and up, and should not have any material parents would consider unsuitable.

•E, which is for everyone is suitable for ages 6 and above, and may have some content ranging in the cartoon type violence of Tom and Jerry banging each other over the head with a frying pan.

•E10 is for anyone 10 and above and may contain mild violence and language used infrequently.

•T, which is for teen, is only suitable for ages 13 and older, and likely to contain some violence, language, and minimal gore.

•M stands for mature audiences and is age appropriate for 17 or older, and likely contains strong violence, blood and gore, strong language and or suggestive sexual content.

•AO is for adults only and only suitable for 18 and older, due to the strong violence, sexual content and language.

Remember young children have difficulty separating fantasy from reality, and shooting up aliens in the realistic 3D video interactive systems available today may desensitize them in the end to what is acceptable and unacceptable in the non-gaming world.

For parents who cannot directly supervise a child's gaming activities there is a cool device that enables individual passwords protection programming for individual children. BOB the television, computer, and video game monitor is available from Amazon, and is worth his weight in gold.