^ MP Row Over Gaming Violence ^
Once again video games have become the centre of attention for the misfortunes of a modern day society massacres. A recent post on CVG has stated that Sue Fish who is the Assistant Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police and Government Advisor on Gun Crime has made the announcement that violent video games are “extremely distasteful” during a committee meeting led by none other than, Leicester East Labour MP, Keith Vaz.
Keith Vaz is renowned for taking action, based on the knowledge that the violence in video games and the violence presented to people in the world have a strong link. Previous articles involved Vaz stating that Counter Strike has a link to a series of shootings in Malmo, Sweden and explains that the game was also banned in Brazil in 2007 and shared a link to the US College Campus massacres.
He also states in the article that more recognition needs to be placed into society assuring relative information needs to be presented to the parents of under age children allowing them to gain a clear understanding that violence within these games could have a meaningful effect on the children they are buying it for. He also confidently states in the article “The recent race shootings in Malmo, Sweden have been associated with the violent video game Counter-Strike”, making it clear that some sort of scientific evidence has been announced to the public, which to my understanding is not true.
Since the release of video games, they have been the target of anti – social behaviour groups and persons with, of course, the safety of the public in mind, but the question that sits in every one’s mind is why?
Keith Vaz confronted Sue Fish who was a spokes person at the Home Office Affairs Select Committee with a question that revolved around the influence of gun violent video games on young people and how they might attract more gun crime. She answered, “I think, as a human being as much as a police officer, that the two are not incompatible. My sense is that I find them extremely distasteful, and I cannot help but feel that they cannot help the situation. The level of ambient violence, as well as extreme violence, in society today is a real issue not only in gun crime, but across the whole spectrum of violent crime. As for the question of whether there is any evidence or any research that indicates that, not that I have been made aware of”.
Keith Vaz then confronted the issue again on Adrian Whiting who is the Assistant Chief Constable of the Dorset Police. Adrian seemed to have a more understanding point of view to the issue and replies, “It’s difficult directly to correlate between violence on video games, in films and on television and people’s immediate activity, particularly in relation to the use of firearms, I think probably it is linked, but in a much broader sociological spectrum. I don’t have any strong view that participation in such games leads inevitably, as it were, to some sort of crime commission. I can understand why the concerns are there-as a parent myself, I share them-but I don’t have a strong view that there is a clear link.”
So the initial outcome still stands that violent video games do not hold a direct link to the violence that surrounds us in daily life, however it is clear that people are beginning to grow more suspicious as violence and games still present themselves in modern society.
Please feel free to share any strong criticism towards the issues stated.
Good article Ste. It’s painful to know that a lot of this unattractive and, in my opinion, shoddy accusation of the direct link between violent media and violence in life is being conducted so close to home.
Until actual evidence has been acquired, and I don’t mean speculation – actual evidence, there is no way to convince me that there is a direct link between the two aforementioend subjects.
Any person that plays a violent videogame and then thinks to themselves “Oh, I’m going to go and recreate that act in real life” (and actually goes on to do it) was inevitably going to find themselves in an equally violent, or perhaps more violent, situation at some point in their lives. So, at the very most violent videogames are just speeding up the inevitable.
Is that such a bad thing? It sucks if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, sure, but these people getting locked up sooner than later is no bad thing.
Cracking post. Hopefully it’ll stoke a good old fashioned discussion, although I can see it being a little one sided.
Just a bit of quick Pop Psychology permeating this area from me; Social learning theory would argue that through vicarious reinforcement (watching the character massacre for money in GTA is a prime example) individuals learn to associate violent behaviour with pleasure, gratification or reward.
However, studies have shown that playing violent videogames only increases arousal, rather than specifically violence, and that violent behaviour ‘as a consequence of violent videogaming habits’ is usually preceded, as Jack said, by a predisposition or tendency to behave violently regardless of exposure to violent stimuli.
Also, you have to think about practical implications, ratings are there for a reason, and if they get circumvented, then the responsibility shifts to those that neglect them, rather than developers and publishers who (according to daily mail drones) seem to be pedalling title after title to turn children into psychopaths.
Anyway, better stop there, I could more than likely write a dissertation on this ‘debate’
C
I don’t think a debate on this subject is possible no matter how hard we could try to spark one.
In the end of the day, this is a website for gamers, and few gamers are going to want to stick up for a media that is so anti-games.
While I believe there is a link between some modern youth violence and gaming, the question is more relative to parental supervision, not just the outright condemning or banning of games. Parents buy the consoles and the games to pacify their kids’ demands without much care, thought or consideration and then allow them to wantonly play games, games of extreme violence. This is actually a form of emotional and mental abuse of the children.
Though much of the violence is graphic in the sense of illustrated, subliminal messages of “do what is necessary to destroy the enemy” are constantly being given and reinforced by the games, and this message is assimilated into many youngsters’ psyches. “What you experience, you learn. What you learn, you practice. What you practice, you become. What you become has consequences.”
It comes back to parental supervision. I’m sure if there was a means of determining if 4 year old Jonny was playing a 16+ game that Mum & Dad could get busted, fined and /or jailed, we’d see a lot less abuse of this nature, a lot less exposure of unsuitable material to young children.
Though in our society we like to blame external components a great deal, it comes back, in this case, to the integrity of the home which comes back to the integrity of the parents.
I agree with your post in its entirety Bharati, I work in a games retail outlet, and the amount of abuse i get when i refuse a child a game that is blatantly over their age limit is astounding, especially when the parents are with them, I notify the parent that they may purchase the game from me but it is illegal for me to sell the game to child.
Frankly i think there should be more laws to deter parents from buying games with adult content for younger children, similar to the law on alcohol.
It’s unfair that an industry that generates a large amount of revenue for the country is crushed in the media over and over again.