In the Grand Theft Auto series of video games, the player's character is a petty thug with ambition. He wants to be a bigger, badder and richer thug. It's good to have a goal in life.

With the player's help, the make-believe thug shoots, maims and kills his way to the top. The game is about creating maximum havoc, all within the confines of an incredibly detailed, richly realized, make-believe world.

The latest version, Grand Theft Auto IV, set records when it went on sale recently by posting $500 million in sales in one week. At roughly $50 each, that's 10 million copies sold.

Now, does this mean that in just a few weeks, the nation will have 10 million more amoral maniacs roaming the streets, raping and pillaging the helpless citizenry as they please?

Of course it doesn't. The game is make-believe. And the overwhelming majority of those who play it — even the children for whom the game is too mature — know that.

For all our worries about video games' promotion of violence among children, there's precious little evidence that the games have any effect whatsoever.

But that doesn't stop well-meaning legislators eager to "do something" about a problem that may not even exist.

In Massachusetts, Democrat Rep. William Lantigua is among 20 legislators backing a bill to restrict the sale of violent video games to children 17 and younger. Lantigua, father of a 17-year-old and a 6-year-old, believes the less children are exposed to violence, the less they'll emulate it.