On said program they had three guests, one a computer game designer and two (again) daily mail style (sex offenders breath oxygen so let's all stop breathing) mentality guests who not only were badly informed on the topic but one of whom was pretty hypocritical in her publicised personal life to be judging anyone. Of course the loudest voice being the most ridiculous, was that such games should be banned. The fact that actually parents are responsible for their children intake of such explicit material kind of fell by the wayside. And despite the fact the computer game designer made very calm intelligent points was irrelevant as he was shouted down in a circus of daft statements by a circus master who was reading off the same page as one side of the "discussion".
Anyway that is the Backstory to my interest in this article, which as you have probably guessed, I disagree with in part. The article starts with sensationalist statements about the content of the games themselves (please someone remind me at what point their is ANY sexual content in call of duty modern warfare or modern warfare 2?) albeit i can't argue with the use of prostitutes in grand theft auto 3, the violence is not graphic, it is cartoonish and despite the bad language I have not seen graphic sexual content. Suggested? Yes. I haven't played gta 4 so I can't comment on the statement made about that.
If there was a real issue in the gta series it would be the autonomy issue of being able to go around doing that stuff. But that's not my point. The article then points out some more interesting information about the links between attention deficit and computer games (no argument there) but also computers and phones aren't mentioned, which are high factors. Text message speak being one of the noticeable deterrents in learning written English (I mean why bother writing something in a long way when you can write it in a short way - it is a totally understandable factor, although I don't use text speak because I'm old and don't understand it, and find it annoying). As human beings we are pretty fucking lazy and give us a quick option and we'll do that. Like letting your kids watch tv rather that reading them a book.
The real bug bear I have with this debate as a whole is that this is the video nasty 80's debate all over again. At the end of the day, yes. There most probably is a link between watching violence a the objectification of woman and learning from it. But these games do carry an 18 certificate for a reason. The generation that calls for bans etc are the same ones who grew up on platefuls of James bond. Where good old cheeky James porks his way round the globe machine gunning Jonny foreigner without a drop of blood.
Maybe that is the problem. You stab someone and they don't just die. They die painfully, slowly and bloodily. You don't just lie their bloodless corpse on a nearby beach and carry on spread vd (still taking bond here). The reality of violence is ugly. It is horrible. It's not just over with a cocky smile and a cuddle under a parachute.
Anyway, regarding the article (what attention issues?) it then present 'an amalgamated case study' which was done so to protect the clients and because so many issues where the same. Ok. I can make up an amalgamated case study that says if I watch shampoo ads my hair will clean itself. Which it won't. While all that information is very true it is essentially compiling a greatest hits cd, so everything bad into one package to prove a point. That Isn't really what I consider as empirical evidence. And there is a strong gender bias to the article, which was written by a woman. Which is not a sexist statement or a slant on her ability as a writer, but it is written from a female bias perspective.
Again it closes in a sensationalist way. It was disappointing, because it. Is an important debate. Children being socially and emotionally nourished and or damaged is a serious and very current problem. Of course thing children witness and experience will affect their growth as individuals, but really as a society, adults do need to lead the way responsibly and take time to try and be parents rather than just sitting the kid in front of a saw movie while they sniff paint in the kitchen with their latest partner. My point being that we are in a moral vacuum where everyone just thinks they deserve to be happy and fulfilled all the time. So people should stop having kids if they aren't prepared to stop them turning into psychopaths.
There needs to be more understanding and less. Sensationalism. Something I have totally avoided in this post.
(p.s I'm not a parent either.)
