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Because I've never played any video game more violent than "Mario Bros.," I'm not qualified to comment on what effects a game called "Grand Theft Auto" might have on children.

But that doesn't keep me from wondering.

Wondering how people who sell a product that makes killing cops "a game" can sleep at night.

Wondering why parents would buy a product for their children that includes scenes of innocent pedestrians being stomped to death.

And it certainly doesn't keep me from wondering about our parental priorities when a class action lawsuit involving GTA is brought not because it shows cops being killed and pedestrian being stomped . . .but because there may be hidden sex scenes in the game.

The sex scenes, known by the euphemism Hot Coffee, are contained in "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas." But accessing them requires a bit of computer game savvy and third-party software. Your Uncle Elmer probably could play the game all year and never find them, no matter how hard he tried. The average video game-addicted 14-year-old, on the other hand, undoubtedly could access them in about a minute and a half.

So a group of attorneys concerned about the impact of Hot Coffee on kids — and in no way motivated by $1.3 million in potential legal fees — brought a class action suit on their behalf. To their disappointment, only a miniscule percentage of the game's purchasers participated.

And while that may bring satisfaction to those who feel attorney fees sometimes are outrageous, it still leaves unanswered the question, "why a lawsuit about sex scenes and not about cop killing and pedestrian stomping?"

"For some reason, sex is seen as more harmful to kids than violence," Craig A. Anderson, a distinguished professor of psychology at Iowa State University, told the New York Times. "The irony is that in terms of research on harmful effects of various forms of media, television, movies, video games, the research is very clear. There are significant short-term and long-term effects of violent content."

Obviously, Brenda Stanhouse, who bought the game for her 15-year-old son, never read that research. Asked in a deposition if she would knowingly buy for her son a game that depicted the killing of police officers, she said she would "possibly" buy it. But she definitely would not buy one that contained sex scenes.

There is no definitive answer as to whether playing "Grand Theft Auto" leads to real-life violence, although there are at least three cases pending that claim it does. In one case, 17-year-old Devin Moore shot and killed three Alabama police officers. His defense attorney says his client was influenced by "constant" playing of GTA and that "There is no doubt in my kind that but for Devin Moore's training on this cop killing simulator, he would not have been able to kill three cops."

There has, of course, been cartoon violence ever since the first cartoon mouse stuck a stick of TNT under the first cartoon cat, and no juveniles currently are under arrest for dynamiting cats. So maybe all of my wondering is unnecessary. Maybe video games don't lead to violence. Or, even worse, to sex.

Besides, as its defenders point out, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" is clearly rated AO (adults only).

Which means that no child will ever play them, anyway.