Video games have been around since the early 1940s. This means that people have been playing video games for at least the last 74 years. Based on research, the first violent video game came out in 1976, known as Death Race. This game has been described as sick and disturbing. Death Race was a driving game and you got points for running over people. Think it's violent, imagine violence in video games 28 years later. Violent video games influence the present and future because they affect the minds, behavior and education of children. Since video games came out there has been a lot of research and experiments to publish their effects on players. Several psychosocial characteristics, such as hostility, anger, and diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or Asperger syndrome, are suggested to be related to violent video games. Those who are most harmed by these games are children and adolescents. These violent games affect children's minds in many harmful ways. There has been research that has shown that some violent video games can cause the mental disorder known as schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is not. It also makes it difficult to think clearly, have normal emotional responses, and even act appropriately in social situations. Video games make it difficult for younger children to understand the difference between real life and gaming. There was a boy who went to kindergarten, he was 8 years old and he was very passionate about video games. One morning he shot his mother as she lay in her bed. After doing so he called his grandmother and said “there's something wrong with mom that she can't understand... middle of paper... nonsense. Many children are becoming hostile to each other, which is causing many fights at school. This not only causes children to lose friends and feel unsafe at school, but it also causes them to be expelled, causing them to fall behind in school and fail again. The failure rate in middle school and early high school is very high. I really believe that the most popular video games have a very strong impact on that rate and if we don't do something about it, the situation will only continue to get worse. Therefore violent video games have many harmful effects on the people who play them, violent video games affect the present and future because they affect children's minds, behavior and education. Violent video games are affecting everything that matters to children. Protect children from the harmful effects that violent video games have on them.