Computer games 'affecting children'

Violent and addictive computer games are making children more aggressive and luring youngsters into a fantasy world, it has been suggested.

[CustardTrout]

They always say this.

[The Meerkat]

Do they affect them more than Aspartame, E numbers, High sugar diets, Sodium Nitrate and bad parenting.

I don't think so.

[fear88]

Actually why don't we put a law in punishing the parents for letting their 4 year old play CoD? I mean its not like the child has a disposable income and pays for the internet and the power. Stop trying to buy an electronic nanny. Stop giving kids whatever they want because they say. Start being real parents with ACTUAL BOUNDARIES and CONSEQUENCE. Give your child some ***king time and attention.

[AtomicGerbil]

I submitted this article to illustrate the unbearable state of media reporting. Once again somebody claims that violent games cause violent behaviour and continue blame the games themselves when it's quite clearly a parenting issue.

Remember, these games have age recommendations for a reason.

[limewax]

It never ends. For as long as there are video games, there will always be atrocious parents looking to blame anything they can rather than dealing with the situation themselves. Because at the end of a day, they're just too damn lazy to take responsibility

[cyborg6971]

What are you saying? That games do cause violence in young children? And the reason is parenting? Do you have children? If not then you have no ground to pass such judgments. If you do, then what is your stance? Are games making monsters? Or are parents so disconnected that they could care less about what they're doing as long as they (parents) are left alone.

Non children having people have no clue what goes into being a competent parent. And therefore no ground to say shit about them. It's a cop out. So if you don't have any kids stfu, until you have some. I'm so sick of hearing this shit from kids. Oh you didn't raise them right, its your fault. Well I guess some of you will find out soon enough.

As for games causing any ill effects on developing children. I doubt it. It's just another witch hunt like music in the eighties and comics in the fifties. The quakery that is psychology has done little to sway my opinion. The reason is because I'm the case study, I grew up with the game industry. And the only thing that makes me violent is hearing this crap come out every month. Baseless claims with no evidence to back the accusations. It's all speculation.

[AtomicGerbil]

Your comment was a little insulting to say the least.

Yes I do have children, and yes I do care about what they are exposed to, although I do think that some games are judged incorrectly when it comes to age ratings. Take Borderlands for example, I thought that an 18 rating a little over the top.

As for violent media causing violent behaviour, I think the whole topic is utter bull. Anybody that is going to be violent have deep rooted problems to start with, coupled with society losing it's ability to punish bad behaviour properly (thanks to government policies).

What my comment was meant to convey (which clearly I didn't do) was that the media continue their witch hunt on the entertainment industry when their first port of call should be to educate parents so kids aren't playing games they shouldn't be so this kind of article doesn't pop up so often.

Additionally governments have a responsibility to deal with an ever increasing lawless society, which I believe is the root cause of all these problems.

[AtomicGerbil]

Just to clarify, the comments I've made above are based on the UK.

[mushroomwig]

So what about films? TV shows? Books? All those other forms of media that feature violence? Why is it always video games that get attacked?

Video games use the rating system for a reason, if children are getting their hands on violent games then it's up to the parents to do some parenting and stop that.

[Guitardr85]

Yeah because I'm sure
Cain and Abel played soooo many video games!!!

[b00mFargl3]

They did. Its in the Bible.

[Tzuno]

stupidity affecting humanity.

[Cosmit]

Ugh. Not these again.

[TitanUp]

when i was younger mom would make me turn around during certain parts of movies and if it had too much cussing i would have to go my room and watch cartoons. kids shouldn't be allowed to play m rated games or games involving online play unless it is highly censored.

i have played cod with kids before and sometimes its the adults that start stuff with the kids first and the kids start cussing up a storm. kids get highly angry when they are losing in single player or multiplayer games. i know cause i used to be a kid and i remember how angry i would get i would throw controllers or whatever else was in my way.

it is still the parents fault if they don't notice if their kids are getting highly angry when playing video games its not the developers or industries fault if the parents aren't there watching the kids.

[sjaakiejj]

"Violent and addictive computer games are making children more aggressive"

Whoever wrote the article, and the woman who stated this, should read this sentence again. They're saying that violent computer games are making _children_ more aggressive, whilst violent video games have an age rating of at least 12+, and usually 16+.

[Somebody]

A sci-fi novel (something about Vrill) drove some mad men to think that their race is superior from others. One of those men wrote "Mein Kampf" which drove a whole nation to start a continent wide war.

Millions of people died in half a decade because of those two books! The people who caused those deaths were not children playing video games non-stop. They were men and women who read those books and got caught up in the fantasy.

Let's not forget Mao and his little red books that youths love to use as guides to turn in their own parents to the communist government. Millions more died.

Books...even more dangerous than video games.