According to a recent survey, parents would rather have their kids drink beer and look up porn than play violent games.

The vast majority of parents out there want to protect their kids from the evils of the world. And one can’t really blame them either as there is a lot of bad stuff kids could get into that can dramatically alter their future for the worse. Apparently, playing violent video games ranks right up there at the top in many parents minds.

This was revealed by an interesting survey that was taken at the parental guide to video games called “What They Play”. The good, wholesome people over at What They Play sought to find out what parents' biggest fears were as far as bad habits that their kids might engage in go. Not too surprisingly, their kids smoking weed was at the top of the list at 49% but the second place fear among the 1,266 people was a real shocker.

Parents rated their kids playing Grand Theft Auto 4 as their next biggest concern for bad activities kids could engage in at 19%. Kids looking up pornography was only at 16% while the amazing thing occurred when drinking beer came in fourth with just 14% of parents worrying about this the most.

Now the fact that the adults surveyed were more concerned with their kids taking up a violent video game over getting hammered with alcohol or hopping on the computer to ogle at anything from naked babes to videos involving SM freaks is astounding. Have video games really become that much of an evil or was there something wrong with the parents surveyed?

One might actually go with the second argument after hearing part two of the What They Play survey. In it, parents were also asked what they would hate most for their kids to see in a violent video game. Public enemy number one – A man and a woman having sex at 37%. And this isn’t an entirely unreasonable dislike for parents when regarding video games.

However, when one sees what else is on the list, it becomes very unreasonable as two men kissing came in second at 27%, a graphically severed head was third at 25%, and repeated use of the F-word came in at a distant fourth with only 9% of the vote. 

Now it’s understandable that parents aren’t exactly keen on the idea of their children playing games that are too violent. But when put in perspective with a lot of other things in the world that their kids could be doing like getting drunk, GTA 4 and other violent games seem a little tame.

In fact, how many deaths each year can directly be attributed to playing violent video games and then going directly out and murdering someone? On the other hand, how many deaths and fatalities can be related to people drinking beer and then getting in a car accident? There’s really no comparison here despite this particular survey.