Video games = Violent kids?

[Tredmill]

I believe that video games only corrupt specific kids. It depends on the kid.

[snifit61255]

Yeah the kids are dumb nowadays.

[Kliq]

This will be moved.

And brainless kids who go out, get in trouble and than tell their parents who than sue the company ... those are the kids who are affected.

[Phaktor_Phive]

I don't think videogames have any bad effects on kids.... well they don't have any effect on me at least.

[Chris]

Absolutely not. If some kid kills someone, he probably would have done it without video game assistance anyway. I disagree completely with this theory.

[Dwhitten]

man this is like the fifth person who mentioned this subject and i think we need to add bryan's article touching on this........

[Jebus1087]

Hello.

[Tredmill]

?

[dncardman]

i can't play with knives

[Blaksmoke]

It's a combination between games, parents, and the environment they grow up in

[Galcian]

video games don't do shit to kids, parents try and find scapegoats for their own foibles, live with the shame that you don't show some TLC to your kid.

[Jebus1087]

Are talking to me Galcian?

[Trumpbum]

No they don't

Thier has always been problems with violence. Befor games it was the films to blame befor films god knows what they blamed.
With the media these days we get to hear about more than what people did back in the pre game and pre film era.
Just cos you do a drive by shooting in GTA3 dose not mean when you fineshed the game you are going out and do the same thing for real.
If the peolple who do these sick and violent things they are already in their mind befor they play any game or wacth any film.
The excuse of games and film's caurse these things is just as it sounds a 'EXCUSE' They need to get to the root of the problem instead of just ashuming it is the games or films.

[Spatula]

Mommy said I'm special.

[Seraph Sephiroth]

Its the damn parent's fault if the child is insane and wants to kill everyone!!... I dont care what the media says, I've seen it happen in real life! My parents did a good job with me.. fortunatly.. I know the difference between reality and videogames.. it also depends on how well the child can descifer reality from.. unreality ^_^ if that is even a word.

Two things will cause a child to grow up to be a psycho or a normal person... Environment and Heredity. So really, its a combination of parenting and what the parents expose their children too. If they dont want thier children going out an shooting up schools, TEACH THEM RIGHT FROM WRONG! Communication man!

I'd be much more deep with this, but I havent slept in 2 days, and the knowlege I gained of 2 years in Psychology has flown out the window... maybe I'll comment on this a bit more, when I've gotten some sleep..

[Tendotroid]

Yep Sephiroth's got it strait. I think it is true though that it depends on what kid is playing for wether the kid will go pshyco.... I have a friend who has autism and he beat like 3 people up after he got pissed off at goldeneye. And I have a friend with ADHD that went pshyco on me after i kicked his arse in SSBM. But in the end it is the parents fault for even letting the kids play those games.

[Bryan]

Hey, this is my editorial about gaming violence from Nintendo Fire. I'll just post that instead of typing another 1000 words about it.

Violence in entertainment has come to be one of the most popular excuses for random acts of violence.

The problem here is that people will instinctively blame ANYTHING or ANYONE but themselves. It's how humans interact. Like the parents of those kids who shot all of those people at Columbine High School a few years ago. "Uh... no, my kid wasn't crazy... he just played Doom... Yeah, I was a good parent. I was there for him a few hours a week... what, like parenting is a fulltime job?" Morons. I'm not saying that parents should go to jail for this, but somebody needs to give these people a good slap for blaming games. It's not like there wasn't violence in America before violent games and movies came around. Television didn't even exist when Americans killed millions of Indians, enslaved millions of blacks, slaughtered 700,000 of their own people in a family feud and attained the highest murder rate in the world. Fake violence a bad influence? You say that limiting fake violence will stop real violence? Here's some violence for you: How about I pistol whip some sense into you? Dumbass.

Don't blame Electronic Arts and ID Studios. We brought our violent tendencies from Europe and gave them our genuine American twist. For example, violent American movies such as Die Hard, Terminator and Lethal Weapon do very well in Japan, Canada and Europe but in Japan with a population of 170 Million, there would be 800 murders, but in New York City with a population of only 8 Million, there will be about 2500 murders. There are two possibilities here. Either New Yorkers hate eachother, or America just has a higher crime rate than Japan. Japan with the same violent movies that we have has a lower crime rate. Yeah, fake violence REALLY turns people into violent killers. It just seems like people blame the first thing that comes to mind without really putting much thought into what it really is.

Obviously anyone who uses entertainment as a scapegoat is ignorant to the facts. Games and movies are fake. They may look real, but when a "person" is "killed" in a game or movie they don't really die. Games have animation and movies have blanks, blood packs and makeup. Anyone that is of sound mental health can see the difference between Fake and Reality. In reality, when you shoot someone they die. In a game when you shoot someone, you've only eliminated part of the AI.

I also don't understand how killing armed guards in a FPS like Agent Under Fire or Perfect Dark translates into shooting 27 people at a McDonalds or 12 people at your High School. The guards in AUF are trying to kill you, so you kill them first... at a restaurant or at school, unarmed innocent people are running frantically from you in a bid to escape. There is no similarity here. The only game franchise that you can kill unarmed people without serious consequences is the Grand Theft Auto series. There's been some hype among anti-game individuals about it's most recent installment, Grand Theft Auto 3 in which you can do just about any illegal action you can think of. Murder, grand theft, hit-and-run, bank jobs, gang warfare the list goes on.

I could understand parents being a bit uncomfortable with their kids playing this game. After all, it has an 'M' rating (17+) and is not intended for little Johnny. Some parents seem to be under the impression that they are not in control of what their kids play. This is the exact kind of mentality that started this nonsense. Some parents have convinced themselves that they don't have anything to do with what their kids get into. It almost is like they're afraid to confront their kids. This is not "the birds and the bees" ladies and gentlemen, this is something that should be reletively simple to do, yet it isn't always done. Kids without guidance are more likely to start plugging the innocent than kids whose parents play an active role in their lives.

For those of you who believe that games are inherently violent, take a look at this:

The ESRB Rating System

Of the more than 5000 products rated by the ESRB to date:

-73% have an E Rating (Everyone, ages 6 and over)
-12% have a T Rating (Teen, ages 13 and over)
-6% have an M Rating (Mature, ages 17 and over)
-3% have an AO Rating (Adults Only, ages 18 and over)
-6% have an EC Rating (Early Childhood, ages 3 and over)

79% of all games rated by the ESRB are fit for a 6 year old. There is no graphic violence, sexual themes, bad language, drug use or anything else that could be considered a bad influence. As you can see, violent games are limited to age groups. The ratings T, M and AO are where the bad stuff is. Parents should be taking more initiative and learning what the ESRB's rating system is and what E, T, M, AO and EC mean. On the back of the game's box they have also outlined details on what the game contains. Things such as Mild Violence, Animated Violence, Gaming (as in gambling) Suggestive Themes, etc. are on the boxes of every game rated by them. Parents not in control? My ass. Think of it as cause and effect: Do your job and your kid won't shoot his classmates. Could it be any simpler?

I've gotten my point across. The whole argument about games and movies turning kids into violent killers is pure, homegrown BS. If people would take responsibility for their actions, or in some cases their refusal to take action, there wouldn't be absurd excuses for violence... As a matter of fact, real violence could even be reduced. But how much can anyone really expect? It's much easier to blame others when it is yourself that is to blame.

Bryan Barnhardt
Managing Editor
NintendoFire.com

-

There you have it, kids. Now you guys play nice, and don't shoot eachother after a round of Super Monkey Ball...

[snifit61255]

The parents are to blame for the dumb kids. They shouldn't have done all those drugs in college!

[Nelo Angelo]

No, they don't. Most parents love to find blame on something so they blame it on games.

[firefly]

its the damn parents fault for blaming games when they find out that their kids are nothing but a bunch brain-washed phychos who got messed up in the head when their parents did who knows what to them when they were younger:mad: