[Danger Close]

Originally Posted by slackereconomy

this violent movies/games/pornography/music blame game has always struck me as little more than a symptom of our modern obsession with abdicating personal responsibility. It can't be the fact that little jimmy is simply a bit of a psycho, it must be rockstar or marilyn manson's fault. it's a nonsense. and the internet is the perfect laboratory to see abdication of responsibilty in action, particularly when talking to young people....someone doesn't like them?...then it can only be because they are a "hater". It couldn't possibly be because they are what behavioural scientists refer to as "a bit of a dick". They couldn't possibly bear any responsibility for other peoples dislike of them, so how could they ever be responsible for any action? someone else is always to blame, legally or morally. Hitler, it seems, was not a bad fella, he just had lots of haters.

Finally, some scientific talk!

[NorfolkBoy1]

Of course they shouldn't be banned, but somethign needs to be done about the proliferation of children playing games made for adults.

I saw a ten-year-old walking round a local mall this week wearing a Modern Warfae 3 hoody, he obviously plays the game when, IMHO, and in the opinion of PEGI, he shouldn't be allowed to.

It's interesting that the movie studios who made The Hunger Games and The Woman In Black had to make cuts to their own films to make sure that big chunks of their target audience were able to go and see their films, Rockstar and Activision don't have to worry about such things, fully in the knowledge that they can release an 18 rated game and the pre-teens will all play it anyway thanks to the parents.

[munchthebunch]

Well, should we ban violent films, tvshows and novels? My answer is no. I dont think so... It makes thing for interesting!

I do not believe that violence influences children in a bad way... And believe it or not some people even think that violent people would spend time playing violent games rather than committing crimes!

[mirrorimage]

Originally Posted by NorfolkBoy1

I saw a ten-year-old walking round a local mall this week wearing a Modern Warfae 3 hoody, he obviously plays the game when, IMHO, and in the opinion of PEGI, he shouldn't be allowed to.

I agree, getting merked by ten-year-olds in team deathmatch is really annoying.

[Dave3622]

I'm a BT Openreach engineer and I've seen so many things in my 14 years service so I'm not easily shocked. However I went to a lovely detached house a couple of weeks ago and the guy I dealt with was very pleasant, sadly in the living room there was two kids about 6 or 7 years old playing a violent PS3 game with copious amounts of blood and shooting involved. I watched with bemusement whilst I ran a cable around their skirting board but was saddened at the same time how the kids were getting so excited about shooting each other. I don't know what the game was but it was extremely graphic.

[TOONARMY12]

I think its ironic how the right wing media make a big issue about violent war games (which are not real) but yet they practicaly orgasim over real wars and soldiers killing real people

[Daedroth]

Banning violent games is a stupid idea, mainly for the gaming economy, gaming industry and common sense.

I don't think violent games should be banned, but it's more a case of parenting issues in a lot of cases. Most games with a large amount of violence have 18 ratings, yet many teenagers under 18 are still playing it. Parents shouldn't be allowing their children to do that.

Sure, there are those young adults who may be susceptible when it comes to violence, but they aren't much different than films or TV shows and I guess they should be banned too?

[FriedGold]

It's unfair to say that letting children play violent video games is an example of bad parenting, as if it is that simple. Some children - I would say the vast majority in fact, at least in the UK - are brought up well enough to know that what they're doing in-game is just that, a game.

I took my mam with me to the shop to buy me GTA3 when it came out, think I was about 15, she knew it was an 18 and she also knew that whatever was in it, I was mature and responsible enough to handle. That's as much good parenting as it is bad, introducing children to what they can handle at a reasonable age, no different in law to allowing your 15 year old a glass of wine at dinner.

The problem is when you've got kids who aren't able to handle stuff like this because of pre-existing social problems, but in those cases (without wanting to generalise too much), the parenting has often been sub-standard from the off and buying or not buying a game is a very small part of a larger problem.

[TEOL]

They are only virtual reality and not real life so hell no they should not be banned as people should have the choice to play them or not.

[gamehound294]

Nope, violent people are the ones that should be banned...

[Conroy]

I'm waiting to see how gaming gets blamed for the latest massacre in Colorado. Americans hold on dearly to their Right to Bare Arms and guns laws are very relaxed in Colorado but no doubt, gaming will somehow get the blame.

It may (or may not) come as a surprise to learn that gun sales in Colorado have increased by over 40% since the shootings. More guns to deter gun crime.