HDC Weekly Debate #2 - Sociopathic violence : Do movies & videogames play a big role?
 

We did have Topic #1 a few weeks back. This time, I have chanced upon a related topic.

Teens becoming violent, Virginia Tech Massacre, teens running rampant in schools, domestic violence, enraged kids kill own parents...

...some of the burning issues today. We all know kids are easily influential, by their company and what they see or try to emulate.

Do the recent movies (getting more violent and bloody) and the role-playing / first person shooter videogames have a part in this? I chanced upon an article in a recent mag in which psychoanalysts defined "internet and computer addiction" in which they argued that violent role-play games DO tend to influence teens to a fair bit. They either become short-tempered, violent, easily annoyed, nervous when not playing etc. OR they become suicidal insomniacs.

Do movies and videogames influence kids to that extent? Granted, violence in games and movies has considerably increased over the years...but the uber-bloody violent action movies of the 80s didn't have THAT kind of influence on us who grew through those years.

So...

What's your take on this?

I think it all lies on the parents in my opinion. Parents need to do a better job at a younger age to control what their kids watch and play. My nephew is nine years old and he watches horror flicks and plays Grand Theft Auto which to some extent I think is wrong because he is far too young to be playing things like that but his father (my brother) still teaches him right from wrong, and makes sure he knows that it's just a game or movie and he can't do stuff like that in real life.

If a parent teaches a kid the ways of life and shows them what is acceptable and unacceptable then I think that helps a lot. But it also lies in the mentality of a human being. Some people are just completely off or in other words not the sharpest tool in the shed or whatnot. You can easily see violent things in the news every day about someone getting shot and murdered or someone getting raped.

That's just my opinion.

I agree with Gore. Parents play a big part in making sure their kids grow up well. Obviously you could have great parents but because of other things, people at school etc. the child could turn out violent, but it's up to the parents to teach the child good values as much as they can when their minds are young and like sponges. After that, there are many more other factors like I said, but parents should still try their best to make their kids turn out right.

As for games and movies, I don't think it's entirely nonsense. There was one man in england a few years back who killed an elderly couple for no apparent reason, and when in court, he proudly admitted it and said he wanted to be as famous as freddy krueger. Now, that was obviously caused by a film. But, with a mind like that (and he was only about twenty when he did it, and in the newspaper it said he had liked blood and horror from a young age, the parents are partially to blame.

They should have known how impressionable their son was and made sure he was taught right and wrong and maybe laid him off the horror movies. I know it's weird reading me talk about this because of my age, but I know that even though I love horror movies, I can understand that all they are are movies and the things that happen in them are best left in the movies.

There are plenty of factors and definetely, movies and some games (manhunt etc.) which can glamourise violence, but it's up to the parents to let the child know right and wrong and to know when their child is maybe too into these games and films.

It was on the news here.

Shocking...and horrifying.

It really is terrible how a human being would do that. I always think it strange when people says things like "How one human could do that to another...". It's almost as though they don't seem to think it's as bad killing an animal. I don't condone enjoy killing of any kind. I hate people swatting flies when they could open a window or putting salt on a slug because they can. Killing of any kind is terrible. But then, only humans (and velociraptors) hunt for fun. Some animals kill when they don't need to, but they'll still take whatever they've killed and eat it later, or they'll kill in self defence. The human race is cruel and murder should be left to movies and books.

i think a kid can be exposed to almost anything at the appropriate time (this is fully dependant on the childs emotional maturity) if he/she has a proper base formed by a proper upbringing.

so basically i'm agreeing with the folks above to some extent - re the parents

every kid is different - some will not be able to process certain things appropriately at certain ages (some - never)

but if you have parents that give a shit, they will sit with you - explain things - filter stuff, answer your questions.

if there are no parents to give a shit - and show you why you should care for others, what the difference from good and bad, fantasy from reality is...then there is an excellent probability that the end result of the marginalization will end up in some amoral sociopathic piece of criminal shit.

this is the driving force behind the insanity thats spreading through north american society like a cancer.

irresponsible fucking idiots who have no business being fertile.

I agree with everything everyone above me said. I can't say it any better.

Here Here Urge Here Here!

I was exposed to horror movies at 5, and also i loved to play grand theft auto when i was younger.My parents knew that i knew what was right and wrong.They didnt care.I think it depends on the person and also the parents.

Good points!My parents sat with me sometimes when i didnt understand something.I got it right away



I'm just socially retarded.:)

Yeah but I am sure that you learned at an early age from your parents or teachers at school that the games and movies you played and watched respectively were mere fantasy and not able to be done in real life.

They play a big role in keeping deadly teenagers inside where we're safe from their shenanigans.

Small childen should not be exposed to anything graphic: Richard Ramirez was a kid, not even a teenager when he used to hang out with an uncle who would tell him stories about killing people in vietnam, and shot his girlfriend in the face right in front of him. Fucked him up but good.


Now, exposure to some of these things at an early age can lead to an unhealthy obsession with the subject.

However, do i think letting a 14 year old play doom and watch hellraiser will inspire him to shoot up his classroom? Not unless the little fucker wa seriously unhinged to begin with.


On topic, a bit:
a little article I wrote for PLanetHalflife during my tenure as a staff writer there:
http://planethalflife.gamespy.com/Vi...s.Detail&id=22

movies can push people over the edge, but I'd say nearly all of the times it does, it's because their minds haven't been trained to know what's right and wrong, and what they can and can't do.

If your wired wrong than anything can be a catalyst.


simple as that

i agree with that but in the old nature VS nurture arguement - i still think that if you are wired right but life is against you - the same outcome is possible.

There were young rulers who slaughtered thousands before they were out of their teens... some simply tortured and killed for fun. There were no movies or videogames to blame things on then but I wonder if people pointed the finger at the jester's silly antics.

if the jester was ripping the heads off of small animals to make people laugh .. and people did indeed laugh..

and if the impressionable young mind wanted more than anything to make people laugh ... then yeah - but the people who laughed were enablers..

I haven't found too many evil jesters, but there was one kept around for a king whose job it was to fart on command. That was his talent. Anyway, all I was getting at is that even without the things we're blaming current violence on there were horrible atrocities committed against people by other people and some of those committing such acts were young. I firmly adhere to my belief that we only look for a "cause" of certain behavior because it's not in our nature to simply admit that some people are evil.

yeah - i got what you were saying .. its just that evil has changed along with society as it changed.


there was evil done back in the day by people in the position to exert their power .. power corrupts.

now we're seeing a lot of social misfits - along with the same power hungry sociopaths that existed before (only held back by laws from doing what they'd gladly do)

i firmly believe it all comes back to the single parent/ teen parent - kids having kids with no family values whatsoever. statistically - these are the kids that fall through the cracks ..

this has happened in the past due to poverty , etc .. but it's so much worse now - and by choice.. our values are changing ... a lot of people are losing a sense of what a healthy society is (except for the ones who go to the other extreme and are freakish about it)

Have you any examples of this? I can't think of one.

This is a very common arguement. Every generation thinks that theirs its a society with worse moral problems/crime/poverty than the ones that proceeded it. This is simplying not true. Which would you consider safer the the New York now or that of 100 years ago.

However despite the decrease in crime - the has been a biiger increase in the reporting of crime and also the medias depiction of it and the creation of moral panics.

Look at the 1980s where America was in a panic about the kidnappings of children by satanic cults.

I guess i'm a bad mom!My 3 yr old loves scary movies,his fave is Halloween.He has masks,dolls,figures,clothes,almost every horror movie ever made.He isnt violent or anything,he never gets scared either.I think its not what parents allow their kids to watch,its how well they explain the reality and the make believe.

Yes i agree with this to some extent but i'm a little unsure about showing a 3 year old scenes of teens fucking and then getting knifed on the way to getting a beer..

I'm not a parent but one thing i'd have to thing i think i'd draw the line is showing them films which contains sexual violence.

I sit with the remote in my hand a ffwd through that.I'm not a complete idiot.:rolleyes:

or and also sorry the sexual violence wasn't about halloween. i just reread what i wrote and it looked like it was . i meant ther films such as Last House etc

I have never showed him those ones.He has alot of the old ones like Frankenstein and Dracula.He loves scifi and horror.When he learns how to type he will be on hdc!

it's a common arguement because there is a lot of truth to it.
we have different moral problems/crime/etc than the generations before us.

where there are some checks and balances in place (police in schools, better strategies dealing with crime) the problems are bigger with broken families and unwanted kids. it isnt just inner city anymore - its far more widespread.

there is more access to negative images than ever before and more kids in the position to be negatively influenced by it.

most well adjusted kids in well adjusted families arent at risk - except as victims of the criminals.

i cant speak to new york now or 100 years ago becauyse i wasnt around 100 years ago and i dont live there.

i can speak to changes in the last 45+ years that i've seen before my eyes,.

it would be foolish to deny some things havent gotten worse. and the blueprints are laid down now for things to get even worse in the near future.

100 years ago there was no INTERNET!! I think it has a big impact on things as well.

Ok i@m not American but just using that as an example - Violent crime seems have declined greatly since the 70's for a start.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...px-Ncsucr2.gif

I know this is just one aspect but these figures would ssuggest to me that the USA is now a safer place (with regard to crime) than it was in 1974.

I don't know about the rest of the world but i can honestly say that n.z youths do in fact copycat everything that comes out of America.
Em talking from the way they dress to the way they talk to the way they act and thier fav copycat game is grand autotheft .
There has been such an upsurge in violence in my country that its barely deemed safe anymore...and yes...they think its ok becos if its not ..why would these games be allowed to be sold in shops and without proper parent consent. ALSO
Em no critic really ..but the black culture should be held responsible for many of the crime sprees as to what they proudly rant on about in thier rap songs..
They are impressionable and they know it.
They have started such a culture of hate amongst the youths around the globe becos of thier own demise..
I would gladly sign a petition banning the sale of rap and hip hop music.
Vulgar..violent and down right pathetic.