Madam, – In response to Hilary Coughlan’s letter of March 19th, we should not allow common misconceptions and urban legends to cloud our judgment in this matter. To “curb violent computer games” would be an unnecessary and brash act of censorship.
There is no evidence to suggest that violent computer games cause school shootings like that at Erfurt. In the Safe Schools Initiative, initiated after the Columbine shooting of 1999, the US Secret Service found a much greater interest in violent writing among school attackers than violent games. In Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games, regarded by many as the definitive study on the matter, Cheryl K. Olson, ScD and Lawrence Kutner, PhD found no proof that violent computer games cause real-life violence among minors.
To quote Olson, “There is little evidence of a substantial link between exposure to violent interactive games and serious real-life violence or crime.”
In fact, they found such games could act as safe ways to purge anger and that non-game-playing children were more likely to get into fights in school.
Curbing production of violent games on the basis of misguided and thoroughly disproven opinions would be an extreme (and unnecessary) suppression of free artistic expression, and would spoil the enjoyment of the adults for whom these games are designed. (Children are not the target audience of violent games, as the final paragraph of Ms Coughlan’s letter seems to suggest.)
Parents need to take responsibility rather than shift the blame. – Yours, etc,
Madam, — Hilary Coughlan tells us how horrified she was on watching her young relatives playing a violent video game. Did she not turn to their parents and ask: “Have you seen this?” Or, perhaps: “Did you read the box before buying it or when they brought it home?”
Computer games have age ratings and in many cases detailed information about the content is written on the packaging. It is not the duty of the computer games industry to control children’s access to computer games. I believe the word for this activity is “parenting” – Yours, etc,