One night in November 2004 this hypothesis of many researchers was proved, by an 18-year-old in Alabama, USA. Who went out to steel cars after becoming addicted to the game. Three people, including two police officers were killed in the fatal shooting, which took place that night.
San Andreas, which in America, has been blamed for prompting several killings by teenagers struck again more recently. When a 13-year-old boy was convicted for firing a shot gun into his cousins face after playing the notoriously violent video game.
The Bury St Edmunds youth court heard that the victim survived the blast but was left seriously injured after pellets penetrated his brain, eye, shoulder and elbow. The victim had several operations since the shooting and will be left with pellets in his brain for life.
Parents often ignore age warnings on video games and let their children play 18 rated games. Further research has shown that; most parents think their child is mature enough to play violent games and think these games will not influence violent behaviour. But this is not the case!
All games get an age rating, in the same way as films do. This is done by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and a European group called PEGI.
The study presented to the (BBFC) showed that many parents saw game ratings as a guide. Rather than a ban on younger children playing them, and putting an 18 rating on a game generally made children want to play the game even more. As they thought it would be cool to play something they were not supposed to. And also many of them knew that the 18 rating label promised adult content such as sex scenes and gore and carnage.
However the study by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association the (ELSPA) for short also showed some surprising results, that not many of the games were actually 18 rated. Out of 1,208 games on sale between January 2003 and July 2004, only 16 had an 18 certificate. The study also showed that parents were more concerned about their child spending too many hours playing games, rather than the games age certificate.
Computer graphics are now so advanced that violent action in games is extremely life like. Therefore are video games simply a source of entertainment or are they a major cause of aggression?
Some gamers say that video games don’t make people violent in reality. They say that violent video games help them take out their anger and stress in a controlled way. And some also say that violent video games help them socialise by play playing against other gamers online.
If you watch some one playing a video game, they get excited. They want to win and get the points. But many protestors think that gamers especially children should not get that kind of excitement from killing.
What do ‘games’ that let kids use a weapon to splatter blood teach? What do ‘games’ that give kids more points for head shots teach? Would you let your child play an 18 rated game, which one day could imprison them or far worse be the cause of their death?
