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Mindless Violence

Entry 186, on 2005-06-22 at 18:24:23 (Rating 2, Computers)

I recently watched a TV current affairs program about violent computer games. The program showed some violent games preceded by multiple warnings that what you were about to view would be disturbing. Well, it really wasn't that bad, showing how far out of touch the program makers were.

The central question was whether children are influenced by computer game violence, and might act out violent scenes in real life. A clinical psychologist and a computer games expert had different views on the matter so I decided to do some research to see if there is any link between violent computer games and real world violence.

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer. Because of the complex interaction between a person's mental state and their behaviour, its impossible to tell whether fantasy violence (in movies and other media as well as games) leads to violence in the real world.

The consensus seems to be that kids know the difference between fantasy and reality, and would never think of doing something for real that they had done in the virtual world of the computer. There have been some cases where disturbed individuals have carried out violent acts based on action in a computer game, but these are extreme cases, and it is assumed these people would have found other patterns of violence to model if the computer game hadn't been there.

So the answer is, don't worry too much about computer violence, its just a form of escapism, and might even help reduce real violence by providing an outlet for aggression. On the other hand, if you find your son developing the urge to go on a killing rampage with a chain saw after playing Doom, he might need to get some professional psychiatric help!

Comment 1 (217) by bob on 2006-07-04 at 11:40:11: Damn you!

Comment 2 (218) by OJB on 2006-07-04 at 14:48:56: Huh? What did I do?

Comment 3 (1025) by WF99 on 2008-01-21 at 08:56:08:

Have you per chance heard of Jack Thompson (a fundamentalist lawyer who holds that video games lead to real-life violence) or the website Mothers Against Videogame Addiction and Violence (www.mavav.org, a farcical fundamental website)?

Comment 4 (1027) by OJB on 2008-01-21 at 09:21:43:

This whole situation is still unclear but more recent research I heard indicates there is a link between games and violence. I still don't know whether anyone has allowed for the possibility that some kids are just fundamentally violent and would find some other outlet for aggression if they didn't have video games. I'll check the links you gave and respond later.

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