PC Gaming

“Manhunt made my son a killer”, says a mother in a recent article published by Newsoftheworld.com. I don’t like Newsoftheworld and I think it’s terribly wrong to blame games for such horrible acts as murder. I am sad to hear a mother desperately searching for something to blame instead of accepting the fact that her son did something horrible because he was mentally ill.

I write about this article for one reason … I believe that it’s very important that gamers are able to talk about the downsides of gaming. If we don’t, we are as bad as the guys who throw dirt on the world of computer games. There are downsides, such as addiction for example where kids plays to much and so on … of course there are ..but you also have to think of how many of the hundreds of thousands of players that plays on a regular basis that don’t get addicted.

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I really feel sad when people get frightened hearing “That game made my son a killer”!
The truth is playing violent video games can increase a person’s aggressive thought activity and feelings, but they don’t make them kill!

If a child doesn’t get the explanation what is right and what is wrong he would probably act out more than others, but that still doesn’t make him a killer. In the Newsoftheworld article the parents of Britain’s most violent teenage murderer has revealed how computer games dripping with bloodlust and death turned their son into a twisted killer.
I say they are wrong! Video-games don’t make people kill. And even though I dispise games like Manhunt and Postal I still believe that they are not to be blamed.

Game players, even kids, know the difference between the game and real life, and what studies of video games and violence have found are only short-term effects. If a person actually goes out and kills somebody he has to be really disturbed mentally.

I am just saying that most people know the difference between right and wrong in the real world and the difference between the video game and reality, and the real question in this should be what causes some people to blur that distinction between violence on the screen and in real life?

Like everything they encounter early in life, what children see and hear in the media makes an impression. But who is the one blamed for blurring their distinction…its not the media …it’s the parents!

Of course someone can be really sick or disturbed as a part of his/hers personality, it’s hard to do anything about that even if you are a parent but …I believe that parents, in general, should take more part in what their kids do.

If your kid plays ten hours a day …you should be the one pulling the computer plug…
The same thing when it comes to TV shows …You know more than 60 percent of TV shows contain violence. Young viewers see up to 10,000 violent acts a year. And you, their parents should be there to explain what is fake and what is real …

Stuart Harling (in the article) got life for stabbing nurse Cheryl Moss to death while she was on a cigarette break. Who does a thing like that if he doesn’t have really big issues with himself? Only one person that is truly sick does things like that.

The article speaks for itself when it says “In a sickening random attack the 18-year-old trainee accountant slashed and hacked her 72 times — just like he’d PRACTICED on the PlayStation in his bedroom.“
That’s the thing …it was made as an act of sickness, not as an act caused of gaming.

Here are some interesting statistics (look at the sorces). Since Doom was released in 1993, violent crime in the US has dropped to 40% of what it used to be. Coincidence? Possibly, yes. However, the year Quake and Duke Nukem 3D were released, violent crimes fell by 4% and a further 2% when GTA was released. “According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population.”

“The Stuart’s mom claims that he never did anything to make her worry in the past and implies that his casual Playstation addiction was the sole cause for the murders that her twisted killer of a son conducted.”

I say it again …
If you don’t want your kid to play a violent game, you, as a parent, actually are responsible to say NO YOU CANT! But don’t forget to EXPLAIN for your kids why you think it’s bad and why you don’t want them to play it. Otherwise they just play it at a friend’s house.

“The mom said: “I know these games are played by kids across the world, but some are truly horrific.“

Yes some are and once again YOU as a parent should be there to explain them for your kids.
And I know it’s not easy to read the signs when something is terribly wrong with your child, but DON’T blame videogames for making people kill … at least not until you got some indisputable evidence to support it …

Sources: The particular article here

FACTS
Read more statistics here

Myths about videogames and crimes here

Gaming, violence, rumors, science PCgames, Manhunt