Welcome one and all to our Saturday club feature ‘Controversial Club’. As so much of our content is positive, charming and a lovely read we thought we’d start a weekly article where we can get a bit of rage out, or just generally be dicks!
I introduce our controversial club, a place where we can all write about things that get on our nerves, rub us the wrong way
This week video games have come under fire again so we discuss our thoughts on games turning kids into killers.
Luke
Of course not. Just like in the 90’s video games are an easy target for Trumps government stuffed with old boring morons. Japan is the video game capital of the world… wheres their gun crime?
Joe
As with any aspect of life, everything is down to circumstance; every child is different, every parent is different, every videogame is different, and every environment is different. Saying this, however, there’s more than enough evidence to suggest that videogames do not have any detrimental effect to a child’s upbringing – If a child can understand the lines between virtual actions and physical actions, the laws of the world, and the consequences and effects of their actions, then I would let them play games above their age bracket (Albeit maybe not too far above their age bracket).
However if they cannot distinguish these, either due to mental illness, social deficiencies, a lack of understanding, a bad upbringing or negative influences or events impacting their perception of the world, then it would be clear to me that restrictions would need to be enforced. Not out of discrimination or nastiness, but out of caution that they may perceive the actions of the virtual world as regular, acceptable actions.
There is a reason why the United States have the most children injured and killed in school environments. It’s not because the ESRB are failing America’s youth. It’s not because games are turning them into killers. It’s because parents act irresponsibly, leave weapons in accessible locations, and don’t sense the blurred lines that their child may see between reality and fiction.
*Mic drop*
Salman
No dummy.
I remember when I was a really small kid I bought Manhunt 2. I also remember my brother telling me that there was some rumor a kid went crazy after playing Manhunt and murdered his whole family or some wild shit like that. It turned out something like that happened because of that particular game but in the end all of this depends one teenager who just was not in the right headspace
Yes, young people are impressionable. But young people, especially in this day and age have always had common sense and working moral compasses. The kids who don’t, well, those are disturbed individuals who have other things going on rather than just video games. The game Doom was blamed for the Columbine school shooting. But did Doom tell those dudes to go and shoot up the fucking school? That happened because they were both horribly toxic and shitty people who had one or two screws loose.
I’m no expert on this stuff but saying that video games causes violence and bad behavior among kids is down right stupid. I’ve played and seen some of the most graphic stuff at an extremely young age. You don’t see me or almost any kid born at the turn of the millennium hurting other individuals because a video game inspired me to do so. Kids are inherently curious as well, so parents, your kid is probably looking at some fucked up shit right now and chances are they’ll be fine.
JUST LET ME PLAY MY ANIME TITTY GAMES IN PEACE OKAY FUCK
Fredd
The short answer: No, absolutely not. The world needs to stop making excuses as to why children (and adults) kill people. Trying to point fingers at a single specific medium does nothing to aid in the reduction of violence throughout the globe. Even though the biggest problem with gun violence is in the United States, there is still massive problem everywhere.
Games are an interactive form of media that is absorbed by all types of people. A game that has gun violence, or even basic physical violence, does not ultimately make the decision on whether someone should go out and buy a weapon and kill others. We are human beings. We have the ability to make our own decisions. If we blame games, then we have to blame movies, music, art, etc.
Mental health is a very touchy subject but it needs to be brought to the forefront so that children can get help at a very early age. If we reach out to children at this early age before anything can turn into a negative result, we may be able to save lives. These children that kill others are looking for attention. They want to be recognized but they also have problems deeper than we will ever understand. I truly believe that Games are being used as an excuse for the rise in mass shootings. Stop blaming games and start focusing on fixing the real problems.
What do you think? Let us know