Video game violence and its effect on culture was the hot topic of debate at Bridgewater College Thursday night.

Culture critic Gerard Jones and lawyer Jack Thompson debated to a packed Cole Hall Auditorium.

Thompson, who was disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court in 2008, believes that content should be regulated more efficiently, especially when advertising seems to be aimed at kids. He pointed out the violent aspects of the popular game series "Grand Theft Auto."

"The problem is mature and adult video games that are very violent, increasingly pornographic, that are still being sold aggressively to young people," says Thompson. "Kids literally process these games in the part of the brain that leads to copy-cat violence."

However, Jones urged people to view video games in the same ways as movies and television, and hoped gamers would be more open to explain why they love to play.

He says, "We hear a lot about the fear of what they might do, what might go wrong, but we hear so little about how these games are obviously fitting in to a sane, healthy life for a lot of normal people."

The debate was sponsored by the W. Harold Endowed Lecture Series.