Are computer games to blame??

[Jessica Rabbit]

I studied this in psychology, and basically the answer is probably yes, if there is something underlying. They won't turn a normal, healthy child into a dreranged killer, but can quite possibly spark something off in a child who, for example, comes from a violent home.

 

The biggest cause of violent behaviour in later life is from what you learn growing up, eg boys being taught to express themselves through aggression rather than through talking, or if they winess violent behaviour being rewarded as opposed to punished, eg a boy sees his dad beat up his mum, and then sees her obey him. But I also don't think it can be blamed entirely on the parents, eg stuff like bullying in school can have a profound effect on people.

 

I think the media likes to use violent video games, films etc as a scapegoat because they don't want to confront problems within society, eg the bulger killers, no one wanted to believe that two ten year olds could do such a thing, so they blamed 'child's play'. It pissed me off the way those kids were portrayed as 'evil' and 'monsters' - no one is born evil, and both the boys came from absolutely horrendous backgrounds. If we could try understand what makes people turn out like this then we could go one step further to actually helping them and perhaps preventing crimes in the future, rather than the usual knee-jerk tabloid reaction, which does nothing positive whatsoever.

Edited July 29, 2004 by Jessica Rabbit

[Alex]

Police reject game link to murder

 

Stefan was repeatedly battered and stabbed by his older friend

Detectives investigating the murder of a 14-year-old boy in a Leicester park have rejected any link with a violent computer game.

 

The rest of the article is below.

 

BBC News

Edited August 5, 2004 by Alex

[LiquidEyes]

QUOTE (Jessica Rabbit @ Jul 29 2004, 18:58)

I studied this in psychology, and basically the answer is probably yes, if there is something underlying. They won't turn a normal, healthy child into a dreranged killer, but can quite possibly spark something off in a child who, for example, comes from a violent home.

Interesting comments Jess. Is your implication therefore that a billion different things could have "sparked off" the killing, and it's neither here nor there whether it was a game, a film, something he read, or something he heard about at school?

 

Intuitively, that's how I see it.

 

One further comment: though I agree that violence etc experienced or witnessed in the home or schoolyard will have an effect on an impressionable youth. I presume though that you're not trying to imply games and films fall into this category? Any 17-year-old can see the difference between what happens on-screen and in real life. I don't believe for a second that he did what he did because he thought he would be "rewarded" in some way...? (fatality, 15 bonus points!)

[Jessica Rabbit]

QUOTE (LiquidEyes @ Aug 5 2004, 15:00)

Interesting comments Jess. Is your implication therefore that a billion different things could have "sparked off" the killing, and it's neither here nor there whether it was a game, a film, something he read, or something he heard about at school? Intuitively, that's how I see it. One further comment: though I agree that violence etc experienced or witnessed in the home or schoolyard will have an effect on an impressionable youth. I presume though that you're not trying to imply games and films fall into this category? Any 17-year-old can see the difference between what happens on-screen and in real life. I don't believe for a second that he did what he did because he thought he would be "rewarded" in some way...? (fatality, 15 bonus points!)

A well-known study carried out by Bandura et al (you can google it if you want more info)

 

 

Children were devided into groups and shown a video of someone playing in a room full of toys. In one, the person punched a 'bobo' doll, and was rewarded with biscuits and told he was brave etc etc. In another, he hit the bobo doll, but was punished by being hit with a rolled up newspaper and told he was 'naughty'. In another video they played with non-violent toys such as fire engines. Afterwards, the children were brought into a room identical to the one in the video. Those who had watched the video with the person being rewarded for violence were much more likely to copy what they had seen on screen. If the person in the video had been punished, children still tended to copy his actions but not as significantly as the first group. The neautral group showed the least violence when playing in the room.

 

I find this quite interesting, the fully published study is somewhere on the internet but I can't remember the address.

[LiquidEyes]

QUOTE (Jessica Rabbit @ Aug 5 2004, 19:20)

Children were devided into groups and shown a video of someone playing in a room full of toys...

Interesting stuff Jess ... it certainly makes the point that young children are influenced by TV images ... but I don't think we're talking about 6 year olds here...?

 

I doubt anyone would suggest that a child who still plays with dolls / fire engines should be playing an 18-rated game.

 

I'm interested what your standpoint is on 'excessively' violent computer games ... as in games where you don't just kill people, but you are actually rewarded for maiming and torturing! Personally I think that (as long as you don't play excessively, and you actually have a life outside of gaming!) that it isn't a problem for an adult to play this kind of game.

 

As you said in another thread, it isn't necessarily a crime for people to admit that they find certain things titillating ('degrading' sex acts to women, or perhaps in this case, violent fantasy) ... or is there a limit to this?

Edited August 5, 2004 by LiquidEyes

[Phil rr]

*reads scrolls, scrolls more than reads*

 

as an example, someones Sony Trinitron blows up.

 

This gets into the media and everyone becomes outraged that sony Trinitrons can blow up, and calls for them to be banned.

 

Sony responds by saying that "out of 50,000 units, only 1 blew up. We deem this acceptable."

[LiquidEyes]

QUOTE (Phil rr @ Aug 6 2004, 00:22)

Sony responds by saying that "out of 50,000 units, only 1 blew up. We deem this acceptable."

^ nice analogy.

[Phil rr]

thank u.