Hmmm...?

Listening to my morning dose of NPR today, I was surprised by a report that is out about the links between video game playing and violence in children. A Harvard based study found some surprising results. Children who were most likely to develop anti-social violent behaviors during adolescence were not the ones who played video games at all, but the ones who either played NO games or an excessive amount of games. What's my point? Perhaps by sheltering our children from everything in the world, we are setting them up for a degree of social isolation that may be more harmful and painful to them than the things we think we are protecting them from in the first place. To what extent do we want our children to be different from their peers? Where is the line between a healthy sense Self and a feeling of being excluded and marginalized?
I am still not sure I ever want Charlie playing Grand Theft Auto or other violent games, but it does make me pause a little when I hear my inner voice saying, "They will never watch that show!" or "They will never play that game!" As Christians we know we are "called to be in the World, but not of the World." But we all know well meaning parents who haven taken this belief to such an extreme they have scarred their children deeply and ultimately driven them away from the Church.
So, lets all go out and by our Wii's and Playstations for the good of our children! And mom and dad, I think this is proof you damaged me for life by never giving me a Nintendo. Just think how much more successful and happy I would be if I had been able to play Super Mario Brothers.