As violence among teens increases, who should take responsibility: parents or products?
A 19-YEAR-OLD MAN accused of murdering a teenager with a shotgun claimed that a history of violent video games affected him into action.
“He would just go into his room and play those video games,� his mother said at the trial, completely ignoring the fact that he had a past history of emotional disorders and had been using mind-altering drugs for quite some time.
Video games are the latest in a long line of scapegoats that people have been using as an explanation for violent behavior amongst youths.
First, people blamed the lurid pulp magazines and comic books of the 1930s.
Then came the cowboy serials on TV.
Next was violent movies, rap music and nearly anything else popular and trendy.
I̢۪m surprised fashion hasn̢۪t been blamed more often.
Now, video games are getting the blame.
Whenever Joseph Lieberman or Hillary Clinton steps up to the pulpit, they advocate a deep-seated need to protect our youths by limiting free expression. This, though rather contrary to the First Amendment, is not something that needs to be contested.
Games like “Grand Theft Auto� should be kept out of the hands of children, whether through better enforcement of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board system or regulation of the gaming industry and the retailers themselves.
The real issue — the one people are afraid to even mention — is that parents need to take an active role in what their children are playing.
How many times do we hear stories in the news about some teenager going on a rampage at his school, only to have the parents decry those blasted video games he used instead of real social contact?
Nobody wants to blame the parents. There is some stigma that says we cannot level our accusations at those people that, sometimes, simply failed to raise their child properly.
Can video games really cause people to go off the deep end and commit murder?
Many studies have been conducted all over the world. Some say yes. Others say no. All of the research is inconclusive and, ultimately, irrelevant.
There is no reason for parents to buy their 13-year-old son or daughter a game that delights in murder on a grand scale.
When the “Hot Coffee Mod� scandal broke out—in which gamers discovered that a secret sex mini-game could be opened up in the PC version of “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas� — parents were horrified to discover their kids had access to this kind of content.
This is despite the fact that the back of the box clearly read: “Rated M for Mature due to Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs,� according to the ESRB Web site.
Had they actually looked at what they were buying their son or daughter, maybe these parents wouldn̢۪t have been so horrified.
What̢۪s truly horrifying is that this level of disconnect between parents and children even exists.
The teenage years are some of the hardest times any person will ever go through.
Teenagers undergo a heavy physical and emotional change while they try desperately to contend with a school system that cannot cater to their specific needs, but will damn them for failure.
Sprinkle a heavy dose of peer pressure atop of this and we have a heavy recipe for angst and depression. It̢۪s no wonder many of today̢۪s kids are depressed. It̢۪s amazing that any of them manage to grow up at all.
If you want to help your children, pay attention to them and get involved in their world. Pay attention to what they are doing, explain the differences between reality and fiction to them if they need it and support their interests in a constructive way.
But, if you don̢۪t have time for that, don̢۪t worry about it. I̢۪m sure you̢۪ll find out about their problems on the 6 o̢۪clock news.
There are even plenty of scapegoats for you to blame for failures that couldn̢۪t possibly be your fault.
Joe Johnson is a senior at Fresno State majoring in mass communication and journalism. He owns over 350 computer and video games in a collection worth more than $5,000.Â
Whatever • Mar 19, 2007 at 11:55 am
While videogames alone do not cause children to kill each other, their effects on children should not be discarded. Their effects on adults probably shouldn’t be discarded, either.
No one wants to blame the parent? Ask around about this issue and I’d bet that pretty much everyone, especially those between the ages of 20-40, agrees that parents should be held responsible. This is not revolutionary thinking. I even agree with it for the most part, but it’s not a solution, just an observation.
But there needs to be a solution, because it really is a problem. The problem is that we’re raising a bunch of violent people. At least I think it’s a problem. Violent people probably disagree.
If everyone didn’t want to blame the parents, violent games and TV might actually be outlawed by now. I’m sure it has a lot to do with business, too.
I for one grew up playing games and spent most of the years between the ages of 6-18 playing games instead of exercising or eating the way a normal human should. It definitely did make me a more violent person as a teenager.
I eventually grew out of it but videogames at the time definitely made me interested in weapons and violent content – missiles, guns, etc. etc. were all cool.
I still love a lot of the games I enjoyed back then (i’m 22 now), and not all games are “bad” but it would be crazy to just blame the parent and be done with it.
Blaming the individual seems like an easy solution, but it gets us nowhere. Sure, parents shouldn’t let their kids see this stuff. No one is really arguing about this.
But parents also shouldn’t feed their kids twinkies and count chocula for breakfast, let them skip class, be exposed to drugs, etc etc etc. In a perfect world none of this would be a problem, just like in a perfect world no one would be homeless, poor or disadvantaged.
What exactly are parents? Just about any of us could be parents. That doesn’t mean we should, or that we know what we’re doing. Just because someone spawns a little human doesn’t mean he and she are ready or able to raise this little monster properly.
Some of us could use some help with this sort of thing, because even if children are effectively sheltered and taken care of at home, they have to be sent out to the real world, where not everything is as nice as it is back home.
It wouldn’t hurt to place some tougher restrictions on games and maybe encourage less violent content and encourage parents to limit and monitor gameplay. Or even have schools talk about this thing in class. It might seem ridiculous to most kids but some kids obviously receive no good guidance from home.
It’s impossible to force everyone to be a good parent, so maybe a little extra would be worth it, as lame as it is.
Subscribing to this kind of logic, to just blame the individual, just ignores the problem, saying we don’t want to actually help anyone or make the world a better place. I’m not saying videogames are this big of a deal, but when used to address many issues, it’s counter-productive to just blame the individual. It also does no good after the fact. People are dead and it needs to be prevented.
Picture yourself on the receiving end of the “bad parenting.” How would it feel to hear that your dead kid came into contact with the result of some bad parenting. Let’s just blame that individual and say the victim shouldn’t have been in the same school as a crazy person and that good parenting would have led to a more alert, careful student who would have avoided this mess.
It’s kind of disgusting that most of us are more offended by the idea of outlawing violent media than by the awful instances of violence that the games possibly contributed to.
Maybe we’re desensitized.
Whatever • Mar 19, 2007 at 6:55 pm
While videogames alone do not cause children to kill each other, their effects on children should not be discarded. Their effects on adults probably shouldn’t be discarded, either.
No one wants to blame the parent? Ask around about this issue and I’d bet that pretty much everyone, especially those between the ages of 20-40, agrees that parents should be held responsible. This is not revolutionary thinking. I even agree with it for the most part, but it’s not a solution, just an observation.
But there needs to be a solution, because it really is a problem. The problem is that we’re raising a bunch of violent people. At least I think it’s a problem. Violent people probably disagree.
If everyone didn’t want to blame the parents, violent games and TV might actually be outlawed by now. I’m sure it has a lot to do with business, too.
I for one grew up playing games and spent most of the years between the ages of 6-18 playing games instead of exercising or eating the way a normal human should. It definitely did make me a more violent person as a teenager.
I eventually grew out of it but videogames at the time definitely made me interested in weapons and violent content – missiles, guns, etc. etc. were all cool.
I still love a lot of the games I enjoyed back then (i’m 22 now), and not all games are “bad” but it would be crazy to just blame the parent and be done with it.
Blaming the individual seems like an easy solution, but it gets us nowhere. Sure, parents shouldn’t let their kids see this stuff. No one is really arguing about this.
But parents also shouldn’t feed their kids twinkies and count chocula for breakfast, let them skip class, be exposed to drugs, etc etc etc. In a perfect world none of this would be a problem, just like in a perfect world no one would be homeless, poor or disadvantaged.
What exactly are parents? Just about any of us could be parents. That doesn’t mean we should, or that we know what we’re doing. Just because someone spawns a little human doesn’t mean he and she are ready or able to raise this little monster properly.
Some of us could use some help with this sort of thing, because even if children are effectively sheltered and taken care of at home, they have to be sent out to the real world, where not everything is as nice as it is back home.
It wouldn’t hurt to place some tougher restrictions on games and maybe encourage less violent content and encourage parents to limit and monitor gameplay. Or even have schools talk about this thing in class. It might seem ridiculous to most kids but some kids obviously receive no good guidance from home.
It’s impossible to force everyone to be a good parent, so maybe a little extra would be worth it, as lame as it is.
Subscribing to this kind of logic, to just blame the individual, just ignores the problem, saying we don’t want to actually help anyone or make the world a better place. I’m not saying videogames are this big of a deal, but when used to address many issues, it’s counter-productive to just blame the individual. It also does no good after the fact. People are dead and it needs to be prevented.
Picture yourself on the receiving end of the “bad parenting.” How would it feel to hear that your dead kid came into contact with the result of some bad parenting. Let’s just blame that individual and say the victim shouldn’t have been in the same school as a crazy person and that good parenting would have led to a more alert, careful student who would have avoided this mess.
It’s kind of disgusting that most of us are more offended by the idea of outlawing violent media than by the awful instances of violence that the games possibly contributed to.
Maybe we’re desensitized.
A B • Mar 19, 2007 at 7:32 am
I completely agree with this article. Definitely one of the reasons I’m voting for Barack instead of Hillary. One of the most atrocious examples of scapegoating is an example I heard in a Child development class, supposedly games like Doom train kids to shoot and that these simulations are incredibly similar to what the military uses. It makes me so mad there is a difference between just playing something and acting out on destructive behavior.
A B • Mar 19, 2007 at 2:32 pm
I completely agree with this article. Definitely one of the reasons I’m voting for Barack instead of Hillary. One of the most atrocious examples of scapegoating is an example I heard in a Child development class, supposedly games like Doom train kids to shoot and that these simulations are incredibly similar to what the military uses. It makes me so mad there is a difference between just playing something and acting out on destructive behavior.