I'm still mildly shocked over the removal of Grand Theft Auto from American store shelves after the x-rating of the game due to hidden sex scenes.
It's hard to comprehend that a game like that is okay as long as it's just massively violent but should be x-rated and banned the minute it depicts an act of lovemaking.
![Scene from GTA [courtesy of Flickr]](http://getit.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/scene_from_gta.jpg "Scene from GTA [courtesy of Flickr]")
Moreover the actual banning of video games suggest that the games in some way or other influence the gamer's behavior in the real world. The notion is well known and goes like this: If you play a violent game you are more prone to beat up and shoot people and if you play a sexy game you are more prone to engage in sexual activity with folks you meet...
Yeahh right!!
In the latest edition The Economist tackles this issue in a very balanced manner. I especially read this part with interest:
»[...] as Steven Johnson, a cultural critic, points out in a recent book, “Everything Bad Is Good for You”, gaming is now so widespread that if it did make people more violent, it ought to be obvious. Instead, he notes, in America violent crime actually fell sharply in the 1990s, just as the use of video and computer games was taking off. Of course, it's possible that crime would have fallen by even more over the period had America not taken up video games; still, video gaming has clearly not turned America into a more violent place than it was.«
Honestly, I think there are several infinitely more important issues to tackle for American lawmakers than the x-rating of video games.
Thanks to Anders for The Economist input :-)
Grand Theft Auto is known as a massively violent game and until now you would have to be 17 years or older if you reside in the states and wanted to own the game. However the revealing of the hidden sexual activity has resulted in a new restrictive labeling: Adults Only. 
