Sensationalist headline is GO! While the headline up there is true I have actually twisted the words around a bit to make it seem even more shocking and appalling so as to grab your attention. However, this is simply an ABC News story about a Pediatric group warning us that overexposure to popular media is not good for children. The story is on two recent articles by the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Communications and the Media in the November issue of Pediatrics.
The AAP claims that "The evidence is now clear and convincing: media violence is one of the causal factors of real-life violence and aggression," and actually comes down harshest on the music industry for their glorification of sex, drugs and rock n' roll. However, according to the article they do state that media can cause violence and that "the associations between violence on screen or in games and really (sic) life aggression are nearly as strong as the association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer."
Don't get yourself all up in a hoopla though, they're not recommending the end of violent videogames or a world wide ban on violent media. They just want people to pay attention to what their children are doing. Hear that? Paying attention to your children is doctor recommended. The group also wants childcare physicians to ask about a child's media consumption whenever they get a check-up and to talk to parents if they feel their child is spending too much time with a certain type of media. They do call upon the entertainment industry to make media more child friendly and offer some suggestions that you can read after the jump.
- Do not glamorize weapon carrying.
- Eliminate the use of violence in a comic or sexual context.
- Eliminate gratuitous portrayals of interpersonal violence.
- The pain and loss suffered by victims should be shown if violence must be used.
- Music lyrics should be made easily available to parents so they can read them before purchasing music.
- Video games should not use humans or other living targets and points should not be awarded for killing.
- Violent video games should be limited to age-restricted areas of arcades.
Clearly some solid recommendations for game's for kids. Don't worry, it doesn't appear that they are demanding these rules be applied to all games. Though from a creative stand point a videogame where you actually felt the loss and suffering of all the people you mowed down would be truly something special.
Matthew Razak is Destructoid's Associate editor and co-founder of film site
Flixist. He began as community member "cowzilla" and was since sequestered to write brainy features material. He lives in Los Angeles with his beautiful wife.
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Contest:
2:00 PM on 10.25.2009
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Watch your kids and society will be 9001 times better. Seriously. That's all you have to do.
Keep it going.
Don't see that happening anytime soon...
Then, what the use of the achievements system?!
That's why there's a rating system, it's not our fault that parents don't give a shit about them.
Yea, I'm liking the people who clearly read only the headline and comment. Headlines like that are perfect for spotting them.
Bullshit.
I've done papers on the subject and there's really not a single study out there that conclusively says much of anything for or against the argument.
Also, throwing the words "causal factors" around in this debate is something that even the anti-games studies don't do.
There simply isn't any evidence to support that playing violent games actually causes ANY violent behavior and these games are just as likely to mitigate violent thoughts and actions as well.
revelatory stuff
"For example, the kind of electronic music played at raves has been associated with use of drugs and alcohol, while heavy metal and rap have been associated with reckless behavior and below-average academic performance, the authors said."
BS- I am an electronic musician (mostly dnb/jungle/glitch/breakcore/chiptune)and I don't use drugs and drink in moderation as well as most people that I know that go to my shows, the music has no lyrics and promotes noting but listening to the music- the media glamorizes and promotes an image of the type of music and what behavior it promotes.
also I hang out with a lot of metalheads and most of them are intellectuals, programmers, software developers, etc. and not dropouts and reckless people.
the impression that I get from the article is be scared first and make decisions later
I think you're missing the point a little bit, and are using little too much anecdotal evidence. I'm 28 and have been listening to electronic music since I was about 14. As a teenager I went to a ridiculous amount of "raves" and to say drugs weren't running rampant there is a complete lie. But the real problem is you're comparing the musician to the actual music-goers. They are not one and the same.
Hell as I got older, started making music myself, and actually started mingling with other musicians I realized they're quite brilliant and not on drugs at all. But that has nothing to do with the actual music-goer's themselves. Don't confuse the two.
If there isn't drug use running rampant at raves then why do so many people specifically go to raves to score drugs, even without actually being a fan of the music?
But, you're right to some degree as well, because it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy in a way. The media (or word of mouth for that matter) tells us that there's drugs to be found at raves, people go to raves to get/use drugs, which means the dealers themselves are going to raves to sell the drugs. If there was a way to focus on the music itself, we'd all be a lot better off. But that doesn't make the 6 o'clock news. Drug abuse does.
/FIXED
I'm pretty sure if violence was eliminated from games, people would get bored of playing the same puzzle games over and over to the point where the entire video game industry collapses.
I do agree that parents and retailers both need to be more responsible when it comes to selling and exposing younger people to mature rated games. But parents are lazy so of course they're going to go after the publishers for even selling products other adults enjoy, just because some of the adults fail at parenting and let their kids watch them or even play games like GTA or other shooters.
This is just another bandwagoning article coming out of the AAP. In reality, people would prefer to blame violence on media rather than look at the pre-existing dark corners of the human soul.
Thankfully I got hooked up with some methadone twice a week at a local clinic and now I barely only ever play games. I managed to only play McKids the other day for 10 minutes.
Heavy metal and some types of rock music have also been associated with an increased risk of suicide, depression, delinquency risk behavior, smoking, and conduct problems."
I listen to Metal and Melo Death Metal as my primary genres of music, yet I do not smoke, drink, do any types of drugs or any other form of behavior listed above. Add that to the fact that I have had very good grades throughout school and am in all advanced classes I do not believe the music is what causes these people to act the way they do. Their peers and situations in life cause a person to grow up to be who they are, music is a form of art and expression just as much as painting and architecture. People who have social or reckless behavior patterns may flock to a certain form of music but the music is not what causes it.
Also sensationalism...
..and Captain Obvious.
Remember, just because it's published in a scientific journal does not make it true by any means.
So, if we were to study a culture of violence, then I would tacitly agree there are social forces encouraging the justification of violent behavior. My point, however, is that violence comes from within, from the latent tendency turning into an active tendency, rather than some kind of external seed of violence being planted in an individual.
Along these lines, video games do not provide a justification for violence (perhaps there are a very few that do, but I will get to that in a moment). Memorial Day provides a justification for violence. Veteran's Day provides a justification for violence. Many of the History channel's television programs directly or indirectly provide a justification for violence. My point is that the most concerning thing is not the portrayal of violence itself, but the justification for violence that makes violence seem reasonable and the natural way to solve a particular problem.
So, in a video game such as Medal of Honor Pacific Assault, where we're out to stop the enemy for the purposes of patriotism and what have you, this is a game that encourages and justifies violent solutions to problems. It glorifies every day people turned into soldiers practicing violent behavior to solve problems.
Yet, games such as Pacific Assault are not the ones that are criticized. They are rated "T" for teen and often lauded for their patriotic spirit. My argument is that so-called "patriotic spirit" is far more troublesome in awakening the latent violent tendencies than the depiction of violence itself.