Do video games create violence in kids?

[drwow]

Here are a few examples;

On March 6, 2005, the case of 18-year old Devin Moore, wherein plaintiffs have argued Grand Theft Auto: Vice City inspired him to kill three police officers that came to arrest him for stealing a car. In October 9 2005, a judge sentenced the convicted killer to death by lethal injection.

In April 1999, 18-year-old Eric Harris and 17-year-old Dylan Klebold killed 12 students and a teacher in the Columbine High School Massacre. The two were allegedly obsessed with the video game Doom, and before the shootings, Harris claimed that the massacre would be "like Doom". Harris also created WADs for the game, and created a large mod named "Tier" which he called his life's work.

In December 2007, a Russian man was beaten to death over an argument in the MMORPG Lineage II. The man was killed when his guild and a rival guild challenged each other to a brawl in the real world.

My question is, do video games cause people to commit acts of violence?

In my opinion; No way, video games nowadays are used as a scapegoat when the one on trail can not get an insanity plead.
everybody on this list has ahd serious issues or problems before all incidents.

It's a total lack of parental supervision.

Video games like GTA gets such crap from parents because there to lazy to moniter what there children buy. They had to be there for there kids to buy the game anyway, so you can't say they didn't know, there is a giant M rating on the front cover AND back of the box. everything that's bad in the game is ON the box it self. There is no way that parents can blame the store that there children are getting there hands on these by themselfs. Because the stores cannot sell to underage kids, and even if those kids somehow get there hands on a game, you'd think the parents themselfs would see game called manhunt and say to them selfs that sounds like a delightful game.
But they don't, they just don't pay enough atteniton to kids are playing.


What are your thoughts? Have an idea to fix the problem? Post it here.

 

[Kasey]

I don't think video games cause violence in children, per se. However, left unchecked and without supervision, kids will do some stupid shit (believe me, it's a miracle half of my exploits as a kid weren't on Rescue 911). Parents are big, absentee fuckups, these days. My parents weren't perfect, but they were at least there enough to let me know when I was being a grade-A fuckhead. And I don't think it has to do with just up and screening what your kids are seeing. I'd much rather show my kids the potential horrors of life then shield them from them. Parenting with discussion is a key tool that my parents used. I was allowed to stay up as late as I wanted and watch pretty much whatever I wanted to starting at about age eight. I also learned firsthand that watching Conan O'Brien and trying to get up early for a math test was a stupid idea. Just like I learned that watching a marathon of horror movies can lead to nightmares.

Besides, most of the kids who are involved in any real-life violence stemming from video games don't deserve to live because they are a detriment to the species. Primarily because they're idiot jackoffs. I played tons of Doom, Aliens VS. Predator, Quake, and so forth. AND I FUCKING HATE GUNS. I played tons of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II, but that doesn't mean I ran around practicing my Liu Kang Bicycle Kicks on unsuspecting preppy assholes I didn't like. You see? This is a perfect example of a few ******s ruining a good thing for the rest of us.

That bit about the guy in Europe who actually went to a brawl involving his MMORPG crew needed to be hipped to the fact that there is a new invention out there called girls. What a pity. What a waste.

 

[George Michael]

Do video games create violence in kids?

Yes.

But..

do video games cause people to commit acts of violence?

I say no, with exception to those who have mental disabilities.

As a kid I mimmcked everything that I liked, including wrestling. However, when I was growing up video games inspired a lot of imagination; this was mostly due to the terrible graphics, and absract gameplay. If the playing field is two dimensional, a human cannot relate, as we live in the third dimension. Now that video games have in a way gotten around that boundary, more of what is produced is in the third dimension.

A child is supposed to mimmick what they experience, as is the norm in academics, social cues, and so on. Whether or not mimmicking an act of violence seen on a screen is intellegent may be up for debate; the same being applied to whether or not it is socially acceptable. The child is forced to learn this through experiment.

It is up to the educated, learned, voting adult (18 and older) to know the difference, and have made these judgements. If they can not distinguish the difference between reality and fantasy, then they are mentally ill, or are hiding behind a poor excuse.

 

[Spine Line]

I think it depends on how the kids are raised, above all else. If they are raised to be respectful citizens then playing such video games should not be problem. You should find that the kids who commit these crimes are kids whose parents dont give a crap.

 

[Darkshot77]

I would like to bring some evidence to the table to help prove why video games do not cause children to commit violence.

Wikipedia:

Patricia Pulling was an anti-occult campaigner from Richmond, Virginia, and was the founder of Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD). This one-person advocacy group was dedicated to the elimination of Dungeons and Dragons and other such games between 1982 – when her son Irving committed suicide – and her death in 1997. Her son played Dungeons & Dragons, and at first she filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her son's high school principal, Robert A. Bracey III, holding him responsible for what she claimed was a Dungeons & Dragons curse placed upon her son shortly before his death. She also filed suit against TSR, Inc., the publishers of the game, at that time.

When her lawsuits were dismissed, she founded BADD and began publishing information circulating her belief that D&D encouraged devil worship and suicide. BADD described D&D as "a fantasy role-playing game which uses demonology, witchcraft, murder, rape, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, satanic type rituals, demon summoning, necromantics, divination and other teachings."

All of her related suits lost in court

Sound familier, it should. The argument against video games is a rehashed argument against D&D. Both are designed to stimulate your imagination, and contain violent actions. So both are used as scape goats. The article is refernce to the out ragious clames used to incriminate D&D then and now Video game. Now I want to repeat the most crucial part of the article.

All of her related suits lost in court

The argument didnt work then and wont work now. Everyone's favorite massacer chaser Jack Thompson who loves to incriminate video games was dis-barred for bringing up extrainious law suits. So when it comes down to it there is no substancial evidence that video games alone do/did cause voilece in children. The media and people of the world have just gone to a differant scapegoat to blame to make sure that if your child that you neglected to supervise goes out and kills 19 people at a collage, you are not to blame. Only the evil rich game developers who have found a system to make money, though sex and violence just like music and movies, are soley to blame for your child psychosis. That aregument has never worked, simply on the basis that it is untrue, what a strange concept. Not in the days of D&D and not now. Period.

 

[OIL]

No moreso than television does. If an 18 year old doesn't realise that what's in the game shouldn't be replicated in real life, then they're an idiot, put simply. Television shows the same amount of violence as games, but in the games people actually control the violence. So, you could say they do create violence in the kids, but, the kids have to be violent in the first place to produce the imitation of violence in the games, as violence can't just be magiced up within a person.

 

[CCS]

I realy dont think that they cause the violence. I just think they help emotionaly challenged people learn how to kill people. If you're a smart and happy person i dont think playing a video game featuring killing is going to inspire them to kill anybody. But i think if someone is metaly disturbed they could play GTA and think to themselves that killing is fun and they should go kill people. But that's just my 2 cents.

 

[Lee]

"Computer games don’t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive music."

Ah the great video game debate, it's been coming up time and time again, so here we go and take it to WZ forums. You can see arguments for and against, so lets look at them.

1) Well there's TV/Movies that also breed violence.

That argument is obvious, if video games breed violence, then what about movies/TV? Surely kids will see thos images and want to mimic? Well Movies are different to video games in that you watch a movie, but with a video game, you're in control.

2) There are ratings for a reason.

My job is to sell video games, and it is ridiculous how many kids will try and buy GTA IV despite being under 18, and thesae are 12-13 year old kids. Then there's parents who come in and do the same thing "Oh he's 11 that's fine" FINE?! FINE?! WOULD YOU ALLOW YOUR 11 YEAR OLD TO WATCH AN 18? NO

3) Violence portrayed in video games.

GTA, Doom, Manhunt etc. are all rather violent games with guns etc, and are usually the games getting blamed for. What about the others?

Does Mario get blamed when someone gets their head jumped on?
Do the blame the Zelda games or even FF wen weapons of old are used? Heck no, it's just an easy scapegoat.

If a 16 year old kills someone with a gun after seeing it in GTA, but who bought the game for little Billy? It was a present for his birthday given to him by his parents. Billy's underage so really his parents should really be blamed in this situation.

 

[Pimpin]

Hell no video games do not cause violence in kids. I believe it's the lack of parental supervision & lack of judgement that makes kids violent now days. If the kid is a respectful, smart & happy person then they should play it but only rarely but it won't inspire them to kill people if they already know that it's wrong, but if the kid is like well mentally disturbed then they shouldn't be playing it at all but then again the blame should really fall on the parents for buying the child the game in the first place. That's just my opinion on this.

 

[Mr. TM]

No, poor parenting is more likely the cause in these cases. I played some violent video games in my life, but I am tamer than people who played no video game? The reason why is because my parents actually paid attention to my upbringing. Parents need to talk to the children about violence on television or in video games. Children will understand the difference between violence in real life and in the fiction worlds. They will understand the consequences behind real life violence. The same can be said about watching professional wrestling. I grew up knowing the difference between jumping off the roof of a building, and Shawn Michaels doing the same thing.

 

[The Big Gunnzbowski]

My question is, do video games cause people to commit acts of violence?

In EVERY single example you listed, the answer was quite apparent. Stupid fucking people in every instance. Lets be serious...

1) Don't you think that BEFORE they played GTA:VC they knew that killing was wrong? I sure do... I don't think the video game had anything to do with it... Sounds more like they tried to pass on the blame because they wanted sympathy. I say, you want sympathy? You'll find it in the dictionary between "Shit" and "Syphilis"...

2) Those 2 guys were emotionally disturbed ANYWAYS. I'm pretty sure that these people showed some sort of warning signs in other aspects of their lives, people just ignored them because obviously nobody expects their kid to be fucking insane! This is just stupid. The fact that they said it would be "LIKE DOOM" was probably the closest thing they could associate it with, because it's probably ALL they did. Sounds like another cheap way to associate the two...

3) Why is this even an example?! It's a well known fact that a majority of people who play online games think that because they're in front of they're computer screens, they're "10 Feet Tall and Bulletproof". This is just a plain cut case of somebody being "REALLY FUCKING STUPID"!

My argument is, If your kid has a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality, he really shouldn't be given a medium that blurs that line... This is probably something you would notice when your child watches a violent movie or TV show. It's not like these things just happen. If your kid thinks these things REALLY happen the way they appear, EXPLAIN IT TO THEM. TV and other forms of media babysit the kids of today. It's pathetic that parents don't control what their kids watch/play/do. Perfect example... Back when GTA: San Andreas released, I worked in the electronics department at a major retailer. I had a kid come back and ask for GTA. I gave him the "Ya gotta be 18 to buy it"! pitch that you're forced to give underage customers. He just said, "Fine, I'll be right back with my mom". A few minutes later, sure as hell, he came back with an irate mom who couldn't understand WHY I refused to sell her son a "Video Game". I grabbed the box, showed her the rating, explained to her WHY it's there and how it relates to movie ratings. When I told her what was IN the game, she looked at her son and said, "Hell no. You're out of your freakin mind! You didn't tell me that the game had THAT kind of stuff in it"! The kid looked at me, pissed as hell, and said, "You're a fucking prick"! I looked at him and his mom and said, "That's EXACTLY why you shouldn't play this game"... Smiled and walked away...

Saying that violence in video games creates violence in real life is absurd. Why isn't there congressional hearings asking the same of movies? They've been around longer... They showcase just as much if not more violence in some cases. Why hasn't a movie company been forced to stand trial because of movie content? Answer THAT and we may be able to agree...

"The masses shouldn't be made to suffer because of the stupidity of a few..." - ME!

 

[Mrs Sexy]

I don't believe video games create violence in kids, because just like drwow said, "video games nowadays are used as a scapegoat." The kids don't want to take the responsibility, so they want to use the whole "this game made me want to do this." or "this game had an impact on my mind to kill." It's not the weapon(game included) that does the killing, it's the person with the weapon that does the killing. They just hope by saying "the game influenced me to do it," gets them sort of off the hook. Meaning they are hoping for a smaller punishment or no punishment at all.