Even though I grew up in the 80s and 90s, I somehow missed the video game craze that possesses so many kids and teenagers. My younger brother is one of them.

At 16, he spends a lot of time playing video games and can play them for hours at a time, something that I can't begin to understand.

While one day trying to convince me of the merit and true entertainment value of such games - none of which I was buying - my brother began describing to me one of his newest games, "Grand Theft Auto."

At first it didn't sound interesting to me at all, nor simple enough for me to play. Apparently, you play by stealing cars, shooting at people and running from the cops.

However, my attention was piqued when he mentioned that you can pick up prostitutes.

Mostly I just didn't believe him. I mean what kind of game would include prostitutes? What would be the point? And who would waste their money on something like that?

Apparently, my brother would.

The more he talked about such shocking features of the game, the more I wanted to see if he was telling the truth or if this was some new technique of trying to get me to agree to another boring video game.

As it turns out, you can, indeed, pick up a prostitute after you steal a car. Then, if you drive to a secluded area and park, the car starts rocking. Your character's health is improving the whole time

As shocking as that sounds, it does get worse. After the prostitute gets out of the car, you can kill her and take your money back, so not only did you rebuild your health meter but you're not out any money either.

I understand that with proper parental supervision, children too young for such video games wouldn't be exposed to them, and just because I didn't find the prostitute adventure entertaining doesn't mean others won't or shouldn't.

Actually, it's not the prostitute that really bothered me.

After killing the prostitute, my brother continued to show me other aspects of the game, one of which consisted of him beating a pedestrian to death with a bat.

Even that wasn't too shocking to me. Nearly every video game I've seen involves killing some one, though he is usually portrayed as a "bad guy," not some random, innocent man on the street.

But, yet again, it gets worse.

After the pedestrian was dead, my brother continued to beat him, just to watch blood squirt out onto the street, laughing the whole time.

The idea of him finding such an action entertaining, even in a fictional world, physically sickened me, and I made him turn the video game off.

Of course I don't think a video game is going to convince my brother to go out and really beat a person to death for entertainment.

Truthfully, he doesn't have a cruel bone is his body.

But there is still something disturbing about him playing a video game like that and enjoying it so much.

As James Oppenheim, who reviews video games and other software for children, told ABC News, "When you see that you get extra points for shooting somebody in the head, as opposed to shooting them in the body - you have to wonder exactly what the values are that we are teaching our children."

While I'm not prepared to blame video games for crimes committed by children, you do have to wonder if they aren't sometimes a determining factor.

Obviously all children who play such video games aren't going to become heartless criminals, but for someone who may already have anger and/or violence problems, what's to say these video games couldn't serve as a catalyst?

Of course, I realize that this is where proper parenting is required. These games are rated "M" or "Mature" for a reason.

But just because you have to be 17 to buy them doesn't mean you can't borrow or buy it secondhand.

Parents have to be conscientious of the games their children are playing and the movies they are watching.

Most of this is common sense, hence the "Mature" rating. Whether we agree or not, we know that children are not "supposed" to play these video games.

While I would never suggest that adults are not mature enough to make the decision of what games to play, I would question why an adult would want to play this kind of video game.

Like I said, it almost makes me physically ill to think that people enjoy such mindless and heartless violence, even in a fictional world.

We would all frown upon someone who wanted to play a game in which the characters committed rape or child molestation in the name of entertainment.

How could we trust a person who could find such things entertaining? Why is violence so different, so much more acceptable? And what does this say about our society?