Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence, Implements Widespread Ban

from the ouch dept

Via Game Politics we hear about the situation in Venezuela, where the government is apparently blaming video games for the widespread violence in the country, and has issued a ban on the import, production or sale of any video games that include weapons. The link above is a rather heartfelt writeup, by someone in Venezuela, discussing the many problems the people in that country face, and making it clear that it's not violent video games that are the problem. It's long, but is a worthwhile read. Here's just a small snippet:

This situation is painful to behold. Even if I barely game at all these days, I am a gamer at neocortex. I spent countless hours solving puzzles, riddles and fighting monsters in dungeons. I rescued Toadstool many times, only to be told that thanks, but my Princess was in another castle, later I joined Link and rescued Zelda from Agahnim and Ganon, using the Master Sword and the Silver Arrows. I got the Zantetsu sword and cut metal, I summoned Ifrit, Odeen and Behemoth. From Dragoon, I became a Paladin. I sneaked on Big Boss' fortress in Zanzibar and stopped doomsday with Solid Snake. I fought along a Double Dragon trapped on a Final Fight, using my Killer Instinct in a Mortal Kombat in which only the greatest Street Fighter would come alive. I was Linked to the Past by a Chrono Trigger, my Soul Blazing, as I lived my Final Fantasies, Wandering from Ys, arriving to a Lagoon, to learn about the Secret of Mana, and finally understood that there is Ever More to life.

These games are a cherished part of my life, they helped to shape my young mind, they gave me challenges and vastly improved my English, opening the door to a whole new world of literature, music and people from all around the world. What I have achieved, all my research, how I have been able to travel even though I'm always broke, the hard work I've done to convince people to fund a start up for cheap biotech for developing countries and regular folks, none of that would have been possible hadn't I learned English through video games.

Now, thanks to the tiny horizons of the cast of morons who govern me, thanks to the stupidity and ham-fisted authoritarianism of the local authorities, so beloved of so many liberals, my 7 year old brother's chances to do the same could be greatly impacted.

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Teen Gets 23 Years In Jail For Killing His Mom; Judge, AP Blame Video Games

from the should-have-sentenced-the-video-game-then dept

Back in January, we wrote about the murder trial of teenager Daniel Petric, who had killed his mother and shot and wounded his father. Daniel had attempted to use the ever popular "blame the video game" approach, claiming that he was addicted to the game Halo 3, and when his parents took away the game, he was so addicted that he went and shot them both not believing that death was permanent. Luckily, the judge rejected that ridiculous argument, though still did seem to question video games. Of course, there was significant additional evidence, including details that Daniel had planned for weeks beforehand to kill his parents, suggesting this had a lot more to do with a mentally disturbed teen than with an "addiction to violent video games."

But why let that get in the way of a good story. Mark alerts us to the Associated Press's coverage of Petric's sentencing to 23-years in jail, pointing out how ridiculous the AP's opening sentence is:

A Ohio teen who shot and killed his mother and wounded his minister father was sentenced Tuesday to 23 years in prison for crimes rooted in his obsession with video games with violent themes.

Beyond the grammatical mistake (should be "An" not "A"), it's simply not correct that the crimes were "rooted in his obsession with video games with violent themes." The rest of the article again focuses on Daniel's supposed "addiction," as if that's the cause of his actions. Part of it is that the judge seemed to buy into this story as well, claiming:

It's my firm belief that after a while the same physiological responses occur that occur in the ingestion of some drugs. And I believe that an addiction to these games can do the same thing...

The other dangerous thing about these games, in my opinion, is that when these changes occur, they occur in an environment that is delusional. Because you can shoot these aliens, and they're there again the next day. You have to shoot them again. And I firmly believe that Daniel Petric had no idea, at the time he hatched this plot, that if he killed his parents, they would be dead forever.

Now, it may be that Petric had no idea they'd be dead forever, but that wouldn't be because of video games. It would be because of some sort of severe mental problem on his part. Study after study after study has shown that teens can tell reality from fiction. On top of that, as violent video games have become more popular, incidents of youth violence have continued to drop. If video games were really having such an impact, it would be the reverse. Petric was obviously a very disturbed teen, and yes, he played violent video games (just like nearly every other kid his age, I'd imagine), but it's ridiculous to blame his decision to murder his parents on those games. He'll now be locked up for decades, not because of any video game, but because of his own disturbed decision to shoot his parents.

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When People Talk About How Video Games Cause Violence, This Probably Isn't What They Mean

from the overreaction dept

The evidence that violent video games cause violent behavior remains lacking, but that doesn't stop the games from being blamed for all sorts of violent acts. Usually, this blame is suspect, but perhaps in some cases, you can make a link between video games and violent behavior. Like in England, where a man has just been convicted of killing his partner, apparently because she stayed up late playing Grand Theft Auto on a TV in their bedroom. Of course, one would be hard pressed to argue that the game really made him do it; the fact that he attacked the woman with two knives and stabbed her in the chest 20 times would indicate the guy had some other issues. But we've seen plenty of cases where video games get blamed for abhorrent behavior, while other causes get ignored, so why not here, too?

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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The Big Question: Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Kids For The Apocalypse?

from the things-we-need-to-know dept

With all of the stories over the past few years concerning the supposed "risks" of kids playing violent video games -- often argued over soundbites on cable news networks, The Onion comes to the rescue with the perfect antidote, wondering Are Violent Video Games Adequately Preparing Children For The Apocalypse?

I wonder if Jack Thompson would like to weigh in on the debate... My favorite line: "The games all make it seem deceptively simple. I mean, in the future, a kid's not going to be able to kill a six-foot irradiated beetle just by pressing a few buttons. He's going to have to get down there with an axe, and hack and hack and hack." Indeed. Violent video games need to be even more real. Otherwise, we're all doomed.

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Parent Makes Gamer Son Promise To Obey Geneva Conventions In Video Game

from the parents-and-video-games dept

While we keep hearing politicians and "child safety" activists complaining about violent video games and their supposed impact on kids, many people push back by noting that it should be up to parents to decide how to handle their kids' association with video games -- and some take the issue seriously. A bunch of folks have been submitting the BoingBoing story of a father whose son wanted to play the popular video game Call of Duty. After learning about the game, and recognizing some advantages to the game -- historical realism, the ability to learn teamwork, etc. -- he decided that he would let his son play, on one condition. While playing the game, his son and his "teammates" had to all obey the rules of the Geneva Convention. In other words, he turned it into an educational opportunity as well. The players now need to read up and understand the Geneva Convention rules -- and then engage by them, thus also avoiding some of the more gratuitous violence. So, there's a creative solution that some politicians and activists would like to have taken out of the hands of parents.

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New Research Shows No Link Between Violent Video Games And School Shootings

from the sorry,-jack-thompson dept

Some new research has found that, despite media hype, there is no relationship between violent video games and school shootings. The report criticizes earlier reports linking violent video games to aggression, noting that their methodology was flawed -- and also points to the unfortunate trend of politicians and the mainstream media to team up to create moral panics around such things despite not having any evidence of a causal link. This is the latest in a long line of recent research that has noted similar findings. Maybe we can finally get past blaming video games for youth violence...

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'The Video Game Made Me Kill My Parents' Defense Rejected

from the phew dept

All too often these days, we've seen murderers try to pass off the blame for their crimes by blaming video games. This comes after years of techno panic around weak and often misinterpreted studies concerning links between video games and violence. Despite the fact that there's been no actual evidence that video games lead to increased violence (and the fact that youth violence has continually dropped as video games became more popular should be quite telling), it makes for a great news story -- and, thus, a great excuse for murderers. Luckily, no one's buying it.

In the latest such case, where teen-aged Daniel Petric shot both his parents, killing his mother and wounding his father, after they took away his copy of Halo 3, a judge has rejected Petric's claim that it was his video game addiction that inspired the murder (and subsequent attempt to frame his father). It probably didn't help the teen's case at all that there was evidence he had planned the murder for weeks, rather than spontaneously acting following the video game confiscation. The judge still does, unfortunately, suggest that the video game warped Petric's mind, despite little proof that was true. However, the judge notes that even if he was under the influence of the video game, that's no defense for what he did.

In the meantime, of course, politicians are still overreacting to the still unproven idea that video games lead to violence -- to the point that Rep. Joe Baca has introduced a law that would require health warnings on video games, similar to cigarette warnings, saying that: "WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior."

So, it certainly looks like politicians and the media will continue overreacting when it comes to video games and violence.

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No, Grand Theft Auto Isn't To Blame For Dumb Teens Getting Violent

from the please dept

It's been shown over and over again that violent video games don't lead to violence -- but that hasn't stopped anti-video game crusaders from looking for any example that suggests otherwise. It appears they're having a field day with a bunch of stupid teenagers on Long Island who went on a rampage saying they were acting out scenes from Grand Theft Auto. The mistake here is to blame GTA for the acts. These kids were bored and decided to go on a rampage. If it wasn't copying GTA, it would have been for some other reason. Furthermore, just because the kids blame GTA, doesn't mean that GTA was responsible. Of course kids will blame GTA if they think that will get them out of jail: "It wasn't my fault, you see. I was under the influence of some video game..." It's an easy way to deflect blame, but doesn't mean that the blame shouldn't rest squarely on the shoulders of those kids, rather than the video game. Millions of people play GTA every day and have no intention of acting it out in real life.

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Yet Another Politician Blaming Social Networks For Youth Violence

from the proof,-please? dept

A California state politician is pushing a totally useless "non-binding resolution" that would ask social networking sites to immediately takedown any "violent or explicit" videos that appear on their sites. How those sites would automatically know that the content is violent or explicit (or what is considered "acceptable" is unclear). Even better, the resolution would call on California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to create a task force to "address the proliferation of violence on the Internet." Would that include "violence" such as that found in Schwarzenegger's movies, many of which can be found online? This whole thing seems like a witch hunt based on the faulty premise that somehow watching a violent clip on a website will somehow make the viewer violent, when actual research seems to suggest the opposite.

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Shockingly, YouTube NOT Blamed For Teen Web Attack

from the really? dept

Last week, there was plenty of news about a group of eight Florida teenagers who purposely lured another teen into someone's home and then beat her while filming the attack -- which they specifically planned to put on YouTube in an attempt to "get famous." While there have been some attempts to point a finger of blame at YouTube and MySpace, it looks like the press isn't jumping on that bandwagon as quickly as you might expect. Rose M. Welch writes in to point to an Associated Press article that quotes a bunch of people pointing out that YouTube is not to blame and has nothing to do with this attack. Some point out that those sites gave us a record of the attack to make it easier to capture and prosecute those responsible -- while others point out that "the public" is equally as responsible for wanting to watch that kind of attack in the first place. Either way, it's nice to see the AP quickly come out with a clear defense of why YouTube isn't the problem here.

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FoxNews Fear Mongering: Online Games May KILL You!

from the sensationalism-at-work dept

In a piece that with just a few tweaks could easily be from The Onion, FoxNews has written up a fear mongering article about online game players. It selectively picks out a few extreme cases where people who met via online worlds ended up doing something bad, and broadens that to suggest that online games like World of Warcraft are a threat that's only going to get worse. To be fair, the article does squeeze a few quick quotes in the middle from folks who point out that the premise is highly exaggerated, but it brushes them off and quickly goes back to fear mongering. It includes typical fear-inducing sensationalist statements like: "But some hook-ups have had deadly consequences" (you can practically hear the scary voiceover voice saying it). The article offers nothing in the way of proof that anything described in the article is a common occurrence, instead just offers scary words and conjecture not supported by facts: "You're going to see a lot more of these stories, unfortunately." Oh really? Then how come as these games have become more popular, violence has been dropping? How soon until we see Congress start looking into laws regulating online games?

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The Governator Wasting More California Taxpayer Money Over Unconstitutional Violent Video Game Ban

from the how-much-money-needs-to-be-wasted? dept

Last month, California was the latest in a long list of states who discovered that passing a ban on the sale of violent video games violates the Constitution. This shouldn't be a surprise. More than 10 states have passed such laws and every single one of them has been thrown out. Any state still trying to pass such a law is clearly just wasting taxpayer money so some politicians can claim (incorrectly) that they're "protecting the children." It looks like California's Governor Schwarzenegger is joining the crowd of wasteful grandstanding politicians. He's appealing last month's ruling and making a bunch of factually incorrect statements in doing so. First, he claims that "many studies show the link between playing ultra-violent video games and violent behavior." That's incorrect. The studies that people like to cite have all been debunked, as the interpretation usually doesn't follow from the data in the studies. Furthermore, the real world evidence that violent crime rates keep dropping as violent video games get more popular should raise plenty of questions concerning any claim of the opposite. Second, the Governor claims "we protect our children from buying inappropriate movies and ought to be able to protect them from buying inappropriate video games as well." That's nice, but it all depends on who the "we" is. It's true that kids cannot buy certain movies, but that's based on a voluntary system, put in place by the movie industry -- and not a government mandated one. That's the key issue here -- and Schwarzenegger is being misleading by claiming that the voluntary agreement in the movie industry is the equivalent of a gov't-backed plan.

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