Washington, - In front of a leading congressional subcommittee, Dr. David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, told lawmakers it is time for America to have a national dialogue on the effects of violent and sexually explicit video games on our children and society. Dr. Walsh made his comments during a hearing of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection concerning violent and explicit video games.

“America’s children and youth are immensely influenced by the video game industry,” said Dr. Walsh. “Now with the production and release of games such as Grand Theft Auto 4 and Naughty America, our families once again have to worry if their children have access to inappropriate games.”

Dr. Walsh’s testimony comes less than a week after the companies behind Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges they failed to disclose to consumers important information about the game’s content. Using cheat codes and modified game consoles, players could access hidden game contents that included nude female characters and a playable sex mini-game.

According to a recent National Institute on Media and the Family report, more than 75 percent of pre-teen and teenage boys own M-rated video games. Psychological and behavioral studies also have linked violent video games to the increase in real world aggression in kids.

Dr. Walsh urged lawmakers to help educate parents with meaningful solutions, including developing a universal rating system for games, requiring online game producers and distributors to have effective age verification policies, and requesting the game industry and retailers to accelerate their efforts to keep M-rated games out of the hands of minors.

This fall, the National Institute on Media and the Family will also be co-hosting the National Summit on Video Games, Youth and Public Policy in Minneapolis. The forum’s goal is to discuss the public health ramifications of child exposure to potentially harmful video games and seek long-term strategies to curb the use of these games by children and youth. The summit will be hosted from October 20-21, 2006.

The National Institute on Media and the Family is an independent non-partisan, non-sectarian, nonprofit organization. The Institute’s mission is to maximize the benefits and minimize the harm mass media have on children through research and education. For more information, visit www.mediafamily.org on the Web or call 1-888-672-5437.