Comments on: SLT: Grand Theft Auto might not be so ‘grand’

By: jack

jack — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:47:51 +0000

Video games themselves aren’t the problem with violence but rather a small part of it. as it was mentioned role models, genes and other factors also have to be taken into account.
Video games themselves can actually help in more ways than you may think possible such as hand eye co-ordination from playing games such as guitar hero or sharpening your mind by playing strategy games such as the age of empire series.
I myself find that after a particularly stressful day it helps to sit in front of a TV and blast away at a few zombies with friends over the internet.
I can understand Jack Thompson’s problem with the more realistic games like Grand Theft Auto because it is harder to separate yourself from the realism of the games
I really don’t see why the entire human population has to be penalised because of maybe a handful of people that have murdered people and then blamed video games as a way of easing their sentence.

By: Yoni

Yoni — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 14:49:04 +0000

I think violent games are not so bad for all children because not all kids get bad messages from video games. I think video games can make you smarter, give you better jobs, and give you more skills. I think that you are right that violent games can make kids more aggressive, but not all kids are the same and not all kids will be aggressive from video games.

By: James

James — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:38:52 +0000

Violent games could make you aggressive but there are good sides to violent games perhaps. The good side is that violent games give you a chance to unleash your aggressive feelings in the game instead of doing it in public. The police department in New York said that kids coude unleash their violent actions in GTA or different violent games instead of in the outside world and this has a relaxing effect on children.

By: Elana Goldstein

Elana Goldstein — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:34:18 +0000

There is a lot of contradictory evidence on the subject of children and violent video games. The research from the Home Office states that video games can make children more intelligent, provide children with essential skills (like probelm solving skills and recognizing visual clues) and also can give children essential skills for higher ranking jobs in the future. However, there is also a lot of evidence that says that children who play violent video games can become withdrawn and anti-social. Most of the research is not conclusive, and it is hard to isolate violent video games in the larger media picture.
In my opinion, I think that the best thing is for parents to monitor what their children are exposed to. I recently read some research that states that home environment has more of an impact of children’s aggressive behavior then video games, and my intial reaction is to agree.

By: Bim

Bim — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:32:45 +0000

Hmm.. I don’t think its neccisairly the video games fault, for instance I play violent computer games, and have done from a very young age, but Im not atall violent or abbusive.

I think it stems from other factors such as role models, genes, upbringing, deprivation.
Probably children who become violent from playing the games are only that way due to not having a good upbringing so don’t have any ‘good behaviour’ to compare it too.

And with all the bad things going on in the world today, they’d pick it up just as easily, if not worse, off the news than on computer games that (normally) portray you as the good guy fighting evil.

Just some thoughts anyway!

By: Prototype of a Person » Blog Archive » Cyberpsychology Digest Volume 1

Prototype of a Person » Blog Archive » Cyberpsychology Digest Volume 1 — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:21:22 +0000

[...] of Sunderland website. Chris Whitehead, the final year Psychology student, points out how previous research has focused on the adverse effects of violent video games on children, when such games are actually [...]

By: phil

phil — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:26:34 +0000

Interesting regarding the study revolving around violent video games. In 1992 I was on an access to HE course, and studied the implications of videos coming onto the market, and it so happened the UK had the biggest rental of videos in Europe on an upward curve. It is not, therefore, suprising that there is (as one result of this) a more aggressive/ uncaring attitude from alot of young people and of more reported aggressive problematic young people/ teenagers – even with some adults in the UK generally. This is even with these days people have more to keep them occupied etc
Role models in whatever form do, in my opinion, have people copying them and I have seen first hand imitation whilst I was a coach of sport – meaning there were young people who had some of my attributes/ actions – basically clones of me. So what are violent video games doing themselves to peoples minds – surely people don’t switch off from them and go in a trance and play the game and it doesn’t result in affecting them in one way or another – of course it does !!!

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:54:28 +0000

Well, in more breaking news, it could actually be the price of beer that leads to violent behaviour: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/dentistry/research/phacr/violence/pdfs/Beer_violence.pdf ;)