[Orwellian_Logic]

Video games cause violence, most children admit to Ofcom

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1967794/Video-games-cause-violence%2C-most-children-admit-to-Ofcom.html

Most children believe that playing violent computer games does lead to aggressive behaviour, according to a survey by the broadcasting regulator.

Two thirds of those aged between 12 and 15 said that violence in games had more of an impact on behaviour than violence in television or films, the study by Ofcom found.

The findings come only weeks after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, a computer game in which the main character robs and murders his way through the criminal underworld.

Although given an 18-certificate, parenting groups have expressed concern that the game, which has smashed all previous entertainment sales records, will fall into the hands of younger children.

Ofcom questioned more than 2,000 parents and their children to find out how the use of technology was changing.

It found that children’s bedrooms were increasingly becoming “multi-media centres”, with those aged 12 to 15 having at least six media devices in their rooms, including the internet, MP3 players, digital cameras and mobile phones.

Those aged eight to 11 had, on average, four devices in their rooms.

But despite concerns over children accessing the web unsupervised, a rising number of parents said they had not installed blocking software to stop their sons and daughters watching unsuitable content.

According to the survey, only 43 per cent of households with internet access have taken steps to restrict what children view online, compared to 51 per cent in 2005.

Among households with children aged eight to 11, the proportion has dropped from 55 per cent to 50 per cent.

Parents said they did not feel the need to instal blocking software because they trusted their children to “self-regulate” their internet behaviour.

Tanya Byron, the television psychologist commissioned by Gordon Brown to investigate harmful content on the internet, said in March that computers should be kept in communal areas so that parents can monitor what they are watching.

She urged parents to take an interest in their children’s online behaviour, warning that ignorance about adults about technology was leaving children vulnerable and at risk of harm.

Brings up three important points:

1. 18 Certificates are pointless in video games. Unless parents monitor their children's video gameplaying habits, then classifying games is completely and utterly pointless, which goes to show that video game developers do have a duty to what they produce as it affects children's behaviour as in my next point.

2. I've been saying this from time. Video games nowadays do affect the mental states of children. They also make children have more aggressive thoughts(the violent ones that is). From over 30 years of video gaming I've played almost every game out there on every possible platform created and compared to when I was a teenager, games weren't really that violent and the only real way to experience those games was in a Gaming Arcade as graphic qualities in video games on home systems/computers really kicked in around the 90's.
I played aggressive games when I was young but that was shooting down aliens, or 2D beat-em-ups. Remember that the first true horror game came out on the PSX and that was Resident Evil in 1995/6.
The concept of being involved in a life like game at a young age with very realistic graphics certainly affects the growth of children and it's been proved negatively.

3. The last point is about parents taking more of a role in their children's upbringing and not just leaving them alone, in their room, surrounded by technology and very possible dangerous world on the Internet. It's laziness by parents, to spend money buying their children video gaming consoles and computers when they have no idea what they do. If their child knows more than them about computers at a young age then the parent no longer is the parent but the child and that is a very bad thing.
I agree explicitly that parents need to monitor what their children are doing when it comes to computers/internets and video gaming. Their duty as a parent is to protect them and give them the means to protect themselves and computers and video games parents and teachers do not make.

[JNT]

Bwahahahahaa

Go to sleep you soppy ooops! [/b]

[Decaying]

[Laugh Out Loud]

[Laugh Out Loud]

[Dirty Dad]

Games have age ratings on them. If a parents buys a child a game that has an 18 rating then the blames goes solely on the parents and not members of the gaming industry. A parent wouldn't buy a child an 18 rating DVD, so why buy a child an 18 rating game when it states clearly on the package that the game is for 18 years and over?! Its ignorance on the parents parts to think that just because the item is a game the 18 certificate should be ignored, its there for a good reason, especially with games like GTA.

[Ceejayo]

[V I C T I M]

[Dirty Dad]

[Jeremy Vyle]

[Vibrance]

[Orwellian_Logic]

[Laugh Out Loud]

[Ceejayo]

[unknownperson]

fuck off u twat

[Jeremy Vyle]