- Joined
- Jan 2, 2007
- Messages
- 1,067
This is one of those double faced coins.
I generally find most bickering over whether or not violent video games can lead to RL violence to be useless, however I strongly support the ratings system, and I understand why it's not a good idea to let young children in their impressionable phase to play video games with violence.
However, these boys should have been old enough to know that you shouldn't imitate violent media. My question is though, what game instructs you to microwave a cat? The only game that comes to mind with violence towards cats is Postal 2, and you can't microwave them. I think that people should actually investigate what else could be the cause. Why not violent TV? Why not violent movies? Hell, even violent books. I get really pissed when parents won't let their kids play violent video games or watch violent movies, yet a book that is 10x more violent than what you can see in some video games or even R rated movies is fine because it doesn't actually show the offending content. Uhm... violent content is violent content. How is reading somehow 'better' than seeing something in terms of violent or offensive content? I remember a parent who wouldn't let their 10 year old son watch A Clockwork Orange. I didn't argue with them till I saw him reading the book and that they knew about it. Seriously, how is the book more appropriate than the movie? If anything, it was worse in content.
I think people need to look at the whole spectrum of media, but people also have to actually examine the mind of the offender before instantly jumping to the conclusion that media inspired them. It could've been another student, for all we know it could've been their parents. You have to actually give them a true psychological study before jumping to one possible root.
In some ways, I have to be honest but I feel that one of the biggest offenders in media isn't fictional movies, games, etc. Rather, I feel that the biggest offender in media is non-fiction. The news. Documentaries even. When you look at how the news is structured here, they go for the 'hardest hitting' stories; I.E. the worst incident of the day. One example I added into an essay I wrote on violent media was an incident in Russia, I believe. A man went into a synagogue and went on a violent massacre. He had a copy of Postal 2 so of course, the news blamed Postal 2, despite P2 not even mentioning or supporting antisemitism. They completely ignored his library of antisemitic books. Not soon after, a repeat offence occurred. The man confessed that the reason he did it was because he was inspired by the news report on the prior incident. We have a right to the news, but how come no one ever considers them and their ways for inspiring those oh-so-moronic people? The fact is, we have to look at the full spectrum, thinking outside of the box of 'violent media.' Jumping to conclusions is getting us nowhere.
Also thinking outside the box, these kids should spend jail-time. Giving them a slap on the wrist and banning them from violent games is going to teach them that killing a living creature for pleasure is wrong? Total and absolute bull****. Just because it wasn't a human doesn't mean that it isn't murder and therefore wrong. Just because they can't be tried as an adult doesn't mean they shouldn't be tried at all.
Oh, I could go on forever.
I generally find most bickering over whether or not violent video games can lead to RL violence to be useless, however I strongly support the ratings system, and I understand why it's not a good idea to let young children in their impressionable phase to play video games with violence.
However, these boys should have been old enough to know that you shouldn't imitate violent media. My question is though, what game instructs you to microwave a cat? The only game that comes to mind with violence towards cats is Postal 2, and you can't microwave them. I think that people should actually investigate what else could be the cause. Why not violent TV? Why not violent movies? Hell, even violent books. I get really pissed when parents won't let their kids play violent video games or watch violent movies, yet a book that is 10x more violent than what you can see in some video games or even R rated movies is fine because it doesn't actually show the offending content. Uhm... violent content is violent content. How is reading somehow 'better' than seeing something in terms of violent or offensive content? I remember a parent who wouldn't let their 10 year old son watch A Clockwork Orange. I didn't argue with them till I saw him reading the book and that they knew about it. Seriously, how is the book more appropriate than the movie? If anything, it was worse in content.
I think people need to look at the whole spectrum of media, but people also have to actually examine the mind of the offender before instantly jumping to the conclusion that media inspired them. It could've been another student, for all we know it could've been their parents. You have to actually give them a true psychological study before jumping to one possible root.
In some ways, I have to be honest but I feel that one of the biggest offenders in media isn't fictional movies, games, etc. Rather, I feel that the biggest offender in media is non-fiction. The news. Documentaries even. When you look at how the news is structured here, they go for the 'hardest hitting' stories; I.E. the worst incident of the day. One example I added into an essay I wrote on violent media was an incident in Russia, I believe. A man went into a synagogue and went on a violent massacre. He had a copy of Postal 2 so of course, the news blamed Postal 2, despite P2 not even mentioning or supporting antisemitism. They completely ignored his library of antisemitic books. Not soon after, a repeat offence occurred. The man confessed that the reason he did it was because he was inspired by the news report on the prior incident. We have a right to the news, but how come no one ever considers them and their ways for inspiring those oh-so-moronic people? The fact is, we have to look at the full spectrum, thinking outside of the box of 'violent media.' Jumping to conclusions is getting us nowhere.
Also thinking outside the box, these kids should spend jail-time. Giving them a slap on the wrist and banning them from violent games is going to teach them that killing a living creature for pleasure is wrong? Total and absolute bull****. Just because it wasn't a human doesn't mean that it isn't murder and therefore wrong. Just because they can't be tried as an adult doesn't mean they shouldn't be tried at all.
Oh, I could go on forever.
