Kyorisu
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Link said:(From the site)...to hold accountable the entertainment industry for the harm it does to our children.
We are talking about games like manhunt here yes? Games that are rated as adult only? A rating that makes you the criminal if you allow your child to play it knowingly?
If you don't know your child is playing it, why the hell not? Is this the american dream? Screw up your child by not caring, then run round blaming everyone else?
Tell me this, if your child was run over by a car, who do you blame, the driver or the manufacturor?
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This guy is an idiot.
Preaching to the quior.
Violent play and childhood exposure to violence is nothing new. In ancient Rome, gladiators were pitted against each other and animals in the coliseum. This was considered wholesome family entertainment.
Fast-forward 2000 years. In interviewing my parents about this subject, I discovered that violent play among children is anything but novel. Although they lacked sophisticated electronic assistance, they were hardly prevented from playing games of "Cowboys and Indians", "War", and various other simulations of violent behavior. I'm told that these games were as real in their imagination as any video game appears on the screen. In fact, my nonviolent mother reports both receiving and inflicting injuries due to high velocity, projectile acorns.
He said it was possible games could fuel violence in some.
But he added: "It is not possible to say what is cause and effect. These could be aggressive individuals who sought out these games.
"And aggression could stem from seeing violence on TV or in the home."
Dr Guy Cumberbatch, head of the independent Communications Research Group in the UK, agreed with the editorial's conclusions.
"Video games are always used as a scapegoat for concerns.
"There's no doubt that many games are found to be offensive by many. But there are many media forms, films or TV programmes, where that is the case."
In determining the true causes of violence, it may be instructive to consider where the majority of school violence takes place. It would seem logical to conclude that most school violence occurs in poor inner city schools, located in gang-controlled areas. This can be backed up by statistics. Of city schools, 17% report one or more violent crimes per year. In the urban fringe area, this number drops to 11%. In affluent suburban and small town areas, only 5% of schools report one or more violent crimes per year. In rural areas, this number drifts up somewhat to 8% (source 4). As you can see less advantaged urban schools have considerably more violence than the relatively richer suburban areas.
If violent video games truly result in violent behavior, then school violence ought to be concentrated in high-income suburbs rather than inner city areas. Why would violence be greater in the areas that can least afford luxuries such as video games? This contradiction forces us to assume that if violent video games are truly a cause of violence, these effects are vastly outweighed by other influences, such as gang presence and poverty.
In the wake of a tragedy like Columbine, it is tempting to assume that school violence is getting worse. After all, nothing like this has ever happened before, has it?
But in truth, the tragedy at Columbine was not a pattern but an anomaly. In the 1992-1993 school year, there were 55 deaths related to school shootings nation-wide. This number fell each year until it reached 25 deaths in the 1996-1997 school year. In 1997-1998, it spiked to 40 deaths but then dropped back to 26 in the 1998-1999 school year. This indicates a general decrease in the level of violence in schools. Remember this fact, we will come back to it later.
It is commonly argued by video game alarmists that many video games (especially first person shooters) train children to be efficient and effective killers. Even if video games don't make children violent, they say, the games will train those who already have a propensity toward violence to be that much more deadly.
On the surface, this seems to make sense. After all, the video games do simulate activities such as aiming, firing, sniping, and other combat skills.
Upon closer examination however, this argument falls apart. The act of aiming a real gun is a very different visual motor activity than the act of aiming a video game gun. In a video game, there is usually a visual reticule or aim point that shows exactly where the shot will go where it is fired. A real gun does not have such sophisticated aiming devices. Unless the gun is equipped with an expensive laser sight, then aiming involves lining up a notch, a post, and your target in a straight line. This is a much more difficult activity than simply placing the reticule over the target and pulling the trigger.
Now, about that trigger. A video game usually does not have an actual trigger. Instead, the player presses a button on the controller and clicks a mouse button. This is a very different activity from squeezing a trigger on a real gun. It does not, for example, teach the player that it is important to squeeze the trigger slowly to achieve more accurate aim. Also, once the trigger is pulled, a video game weapon and a real weapon behave very differently. In a video game, a sound effect is made and the bullet goes forth to strike its target. A real weapon almost always has terrific recoil. Also, the noise made by a real gun is orders of magnitude louder than the sound effect produced by a video game weapon. If the game weapons were as loud as the real thing, video game makers would face constant law suites for deafening children
When firing a real weapon, certain postures and positions will result in a steadier, more reliable aim. These postures are not the postures that are learned by slouching in a chair and clicking a mouse.
Also, when firing a machine gun in the real world, it is necessary to use short, controlled bursts. Simply holding the trigger down will result in the gun behaving like a fire hose and taking over control of the aim. A video game machine gun usually has little to no recoil effect. The player can simply hold the trigger and spray a stream of bullets wherever they want.
As you can see video games not only fail to teach accurate and efficient killing, they actually teach what a true expert gunman would consider bad habits!
NotFabio adds: From my own experience, I won't play video games before deploying. The rapid hand/eye reflex and timing developed by mouse driven shooters interferes with real life shooting. I hear pro athletes are the same way with sports video games.
So if video games are not causing violence in school, then what is? School violence has many causes. A Surgeon General's report on youth violence lists many risk factors including: depression, domestic violence, bullying, gang activity, high local crime rate, past aggression, and others. Any one of these items may be a cause of violence. Video games are not listed.
Both Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had been the subjects of bullying and had shown signs of depression. Although they did play violent video games, it is not logical to assume that their violence was a result of their gaming.