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| Grand Theft Auto: Serial offender of "influencing" young children |
On the way back from work today, i noticed in the Evening standard that the grand old debate on the effects of violent video games on children had arisen again, with an article with quotes from teachers saying that children as young as four are "acting out X-rated violence of video games". An example is given with a teacher from a primary school describes scenes of children "throwing themselves out of the window of the play car in slow motion and acting out blood spurting from their bodies".
Whilst the article initially does not lay the blame on the games with the teacher in question; Ms Sheratt, saying that she does not believe that violent video games should be banned but have more research and guidance for teachers to help children, the opposite view is is expressed by the General Secretary of the Association of of Teachers and Lecturer's Union; Mary Bousted, saying that violent video games are having a damaging effect on "tender young minds" of children. I think that cases like this might not be as common as made out by the article in the Evening Standard, giving myself as an example, i am not afraid to admit that I've played games which were over my age rating, but im not walking around streets carrying a shotgun and a knife ready to hurt random people?
As an avid gamer, I really am disappointed of this general view that video games are all bad and that they lead to teenagers/children performing unquestionable actions. It seems that whenever a teenager commits any sort of crime, they are seemingly "copying what they have played in Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty." It gives an impression that video games are being used as scapegoats by parents to find a reason for why teenagers are misbehaving without looking at themselves. Parents blame the influence of these violent video games on their children, but never stop to hesitate to buy them an 18 rated Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto game from their local game store.
Games are given age ratings for a reason and if parents are ignoring them, then they should not blame anyone but themselves if their kids are causing trouble. I have no sympathy for parents who go on national newspapers and are blaming 18 age rated games for influencing their 16 year old kid when they should not be able to play them in the first place.
Whilst violent video games will need to be better regulated in terms of who they are being sold to, they should not be made to be the scapegoat for anti-social/dangerous actions from teenagers and children.
Source: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/education/children-aged-four-acting-out-xrated-violence-of-video-games-7614796.html
