When video games were first introduced to the American public they were intended to enhance family entertainment. Some of the games were for fun and others educational. Through the years of technological advances, video games have evolved to new levels creating controversy among society. Video games were developed in the early 1970s. The first successful arcade video game was Pong in 1972. Some of the most popular video games at this time were: Pac Man, Space Invaders, Pong, Kaboom, Star Wars, Asteroids and Donkey Kong. In the later 1970s video games had rapid growth with popular games such as Space Invaders and Pac Man. In the 1980's Mario Brothers became the most popular video game before the CD Rom came out. After the CD Rom was introduced, video games became more real and much more graphic. Not only did video games have such a rapid growth but they became such a craze, that this is when the debate on its effects on children came about.
             Video games play a much different role in American society than they did in the past. Video games have assumed a prominent role in the culture of American children and adolescents (Dorman). Video games represent a $7 billion dollar business growing into an 11 billion dollar business by 2005. This surpasses annual box office sales of the Hollywood movie industry which is at $5 billion dollars. In the past twenty years fewer than 10% of homes had video games, in 1995 40% of all television households had a video game unit, In 2003, more than 239 million computer and video games were sold, or almost two games for every household in America. Video games are now in 80 percent of American homes with children, and 60 percent of Americans play video games. Half of all Americans age six and older play computer and video games.
             Recent studies show that for females about 20% of them play in arcades and play 12 hours per week. For boys, 90% play at home and 50% in arcades, with an average of 23 hours per w...