I am not sure that exposing your eight year-old to Grand Theft Auto is a good thing. I think partents should monitor their children and make sure that the youngins are not being exposed to materials that the parents find objectionable. I do this when I babysit by not watching programs like CSI that I think might be too frightening for kids. At the same time, I grew up in a time when it was plugged into the heads of every concerned parent that playing Dungeons and Dragons would result in bloodthirsty, reality-challenged youngsters. Although I have met a number of people who might be considered realtity challenged, I have yet to meet anyone who was turned into a blood thirsty butcher by playing Dungeons and Dragons. I imagine the same applies to any variety of games.
I think all this talk about violent games making violent kids is hooey. We do know kids imitate the behavior they see in play settings (there was research done on this in relationship to the Power Rangers - said research discovered that when kids watched Power Rangers they imitated Power Rangers. This is a huge jump from trying to find a connection between first-person shooters and the Virginia Tech shooter. Kids might play at Doom but it takes a special soul to bring it into being.
I think violent entertainment combined with isolation, sadness, poor coping mechanisms might add to a feeling of despair, sorrow or anger in a young person (I don't think there is ever a guarantee of catharsis) - and I think it is the job of the parents to look into that. I think it is also the job of the parents to make sure that their offspring have a clear sense of reality vs. fantasy and a moral center. The question I would ask any kid who wants to rape a pixel girl is "Why do you want to play this?"
Using myself as an example: as part of my generation, I played video game that were/are violent, grew up on slasher films, listened to heavy metal and punk rock, played Dungeons and Dragons and countless other games that should have turned me into a member of the Trenchcoat Mafia and still found time to read comic books, horror novels and the occassional classic. By all intents and purposes I should be doing hard time for interstate massacres. None of this has happened and I don't think I am particulary exceptional.
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Date: 2007-11-29 07:53 pm (UTC)I think all this talk about violent games making violent kids is hooey. We do know kids imitate the behavior they see in play settings (there was research done on this in relationship to the Power Rangers - said research discovered that when kids watched Power Rangers they imitated Power Rangers. This is a huge jump from trying to find a connection between first-person shooters and the Virginia Tech shooter. Kids might play at Doom but it takes a special soul to bring it into being.
I think violent entertainment combined with isolation, sadness, poor coping mechanisms might add to a feeling of despair, sorrow or anger in a young person (I don't think there is ever a guarantee of catharsis) - and I think it is the job of the parents to look into that. I think it is also the job of the parents to make sure that their offspring have a clear sense of reality vs. fantasy and a moral center. The question I would ask any kid who wants to rape a pixel girl is "Why do you want to play this?"
Using myself as an example: as part of my generation, I played video game that were/are violent, grew up on slasher films, listened to heavy metal and punk rock, played Dungeons and Dragons and countless other games that should have turned me into a member of the Trenchcoat Mafia and still found time to read comic books, horror novels and the occassional classic. By all intents and purposes I should be doing hard time for interstate massacres. None of this has happened and I don't think I am particulary exceptional.