Do Violent Video Games like Manhunt enforce violent and criminal behaviour within children?

[IrrelevantTangent]

I'd just like to take the time to point out that the Manhunt series is a perfect example of violence in videogames taken to an extreme level. There are even descriptions in the instruction manual on how to swing the remote to simulate brutally killing someone, IIRC. Does that mean that Manhunt turns kids into killers? I don't know. But I do know that you should never, ever, ever, let kids under 18 anywhere near Manhunt or anything like it. Do you really want to take the chance that Manhunt or whatever we're talking about might have a negative impact on the kids' psyches?

That said, I think branding all video games evil because of a few select games' violent content is asinine and wrong. Tetris never killed anyone....unless of course the kid was screwed up to begin with and thought that he should use blocks like Tetris's to crush people, but shut up, I'm trying to make a point here!

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Absolutely not. Parents don't know diddily squat about raising their children anymore to teach them to discern the difference between reality and fantasy.

 

[Azaradel]

Short answer: No

Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Ok, jokes aside this time.

I think claiming that it's a video games fault that a kid turns violent is in many ways similar to the people who claimed Marilyn Manson was the one to blame for the Columbine incident.

If kids were that easily influenced, I doubt there'd be much left of the world. I would probably be on a murderuos rampage myself, if that was the case. I mean, my daily consumption of second rate splatter movies and video games would certainly add up to me being a psychopathic killer, wouldn't it?

 

[HazukiHawkins]

Games in general don't have that great of an impact, in my opinion. As others have said, though, certain games (Manhunt seems like a fine candidate) go to great lengths to supply an extremely violent experience; they're typically games that not even really dumb players would buy if they didn't resort to such underhanded attention-grabbing methods, whose developers simply have no common sense or concept of depth and variety.

Take this in conjunction with how impressionable young children are, compounded by poor/absent parenting, and you may very well have a problem. Not that any child should be allowed to so much as glimpse a game of this nature... Still, I don't think it's reasonable to allow even a small chance that the impressionable child of poor parents will obtain a copy of such a game and consequently develop loony tendencies.

Murder simulators are a liability to the game industry and frankly, I think we'd do just fine without them. I'm not saying no game should ever feature blood, dismemberment, etc., but it certainly shouldn't be the main theme or selling point.

 

[Dragonblade146]

I do not think that games in general have an impact with children.
I believe it is the responibility of the parent to stop their child from playing these games.
I grew up playing moderetly violent games.
And quite frankly I am still a perfectly functioning member of society.

 

[Scarecrow38]

At the very worst case scenario, violent games ( meaning an actually deeply violent game like manhunt) are only a symptom of dodgy kids, never a cause. But even this is a bad way of thinking because 99.999% of people who play manhunt are not serial killers.

There are alot more significant causes and symptoms of criminal/ psychotic kids than video games.

 

[LisaB1138]

I don't think it's a clear "cause and effect" relationship, no. But, as brain specialist Dr. Amen says "Everything we put into our brain has an impact on its function. That includes what we see and mentally process. Think about the very common lingering effect of traumatic events, like a car accident or even watching a gruesome horror movie. What we see, feel, eat, hear and experience has a genuine functional relationship to our brain activity. You can do your kids a big favor by helping them understand they can truly make a difference in their brain health with good choices for leisure activity.

I believe every person's response to an activity is different. If you find yourself angry and belligerent after two hours of Gears of War, it's probably not the best choice for you. I would say the same thing to anyone who yelled at their family the rest of the night because their football team lost.

Everything we do impacts our brain. It's arrogant to say these things don't do anything to anyone, but anyone who says "GTA made him do it" was already a disturbed person.

 

[lykopis783]

At young ages those sorts of games don't necessarily cause criminal and violent behaviors, but they can desensitize a child or make them think that things that otherwise weren't ok are. It's not that every child will see murder and mayhem and suddenly turn criminal. It's the ones who already have behavior issues that are then reinforced by the games. Children have a much harder time discerning fiction from reality, something that would be traumatizing to see in real life WILL have some effect on a young child when they see it in a movie, game, or on television, some kids develop phobias, some get violent, some are fine. Every child will react differently, but the bottom line is that if you're letting you child play those kinds of games you seriously need to take a look at your parenting skills.


Oh, and saying "I don't think they impact children" and in the next sentence saying that "parents should stop their children from playing them" is a contradiction. If they should be kept away, there's a reason for that, and it's that it impacts them. EVERYTHING impacts a child. It severely irritates me that so many people don't make that connection.

 

[SteinFaust]

nope. things are more dangerous IRL than in GTA. where do you think anybody gets the inspiration to write up such things? there was violence before GTA, there were crime families before GTA, and there were vehicle thefts before GTA. and yes there was sex before GTA, because if not the human race would have died after the first monkey let alone the first Rockstar employee.

 

[brainfreeze215]

Video games are as good a scapegoat as any, I suppose. It was comic books back in the day.

 

[robinkom]

This is me not being biased.

If a teenager goes out and shoots someone and it's blamed on him playing Grand Theft Auto, he was probably already screwed up in the head to begin with. I blame the parents and the parents only for either not PARENTING him or for inbreeding.

 

[Shadow Law]

Violence in children and teens is some what a snowball effect of things, were video games play a very small role (if even that) in the many other factors that include; bad parenting, genetics, movies+tv, friends, so on and so on.

 

[robinkom]

I'd just like to take the time to point out that the Manhunt series is a perfect example of violence in videogames taken to an extreme level. There are even descriptions in the instruction manual on how to swing the remote to simulate brutally killing someone, IIRC. Does that mean that Manhunt turns kids into killers? I don't know. But I do know that you should never, ever, ever, let kids under 18 anywhere near Manhunt or anything like it. Do you really want to take the chance that Manhunt or whatever we're talking about might have a negative impact on the kids' psyches?

If people would parent their children to begin with, we wouldn't have to worry about it. Here's a good example. Remember RoboCop? Remember how violent it was? The theatrical release had to actually be edited to be less violent or it would have gotten an X rating. Anyway, it's only one of the ultra-violent things I was into when I was younger and my parents were fine with it because my father actually sat me down beforehand and said "Remember, it's just make-believe. None of it is real, it's all special effects." He only had to tell me once. It was indeed awesome from an artistic point of view, but I obviously couldn't go out and do stuff like that in the real world.

As far as violent video games go, I can remember playing the first Mortal Kombat in the arcade when it came out, that doesn't mean I wanted to go out on the street and attempt to knock someone's head off. You can say "but the graphics were so cheesy" but you have to look at the time it came out. That was a cutting-edge style of game for the early-90s.

My point is that if proper foundation is established at a young age, they'll understand it's all fantasy when they see it. Video games included.

And if that person fails as a parent, then they don't need to have anymore kids... And foster off the ones they already have before they damage them any more.

 

[robinkom]

Video games are as good a scapegoat as any, I suppose. It was comic books back in the day.

Very true. A long, long time ago, kids used to tie towels around their necks and jump out of windows because they thought they could fly like Superman. And this was even when parents used to be real disciplinarians back in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.

 

[ZiggyApplepie]

It's a little naive to blame anything on one thing. It is easy for people to go oh these violent kids also played video games. The games must be causing it. It is harder to look at the more complex issues like parents, and other relationships because they don't boil down into statistics as easily. A kid getting beat every night by his alcoholic parents is probably more damaging than killing pictures on a screen.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

I'd just like to take the time to point out that the Manhunt series is a perfect example of violence in videogames taken to an extreme level. There are even descriptions in the instruction manual on how to swing the remote to simulate brutally killing someone, IIRC. Does that mean that Manhunt turns kids into killers? I don't know. But I do know that you should never, ever, ever, let kids under 18 anywhere near Manhunt or anything like it. Do you really want to take the chance that Manhunt or whatever we're talking about might have a negative impact on the kids' psyches?

If people would parent their children to begin with, we wouldn't have to worry about it. Here's a good example. Remember RoboCop? Remember how violent it was? The theatrical release had to actually be edited to be less violent or it would have gotten an X rating. Anyway, it's only one of the ultra-violent things I was into when I was younger and my parents were fine with it because my father actually sat me down beforehand and said "Remember, it's just make-believe. None of it is real, it's all special effects." He only had to tell me once. It was indeed awesome from an artistic point of view, but I obviously couldn't go out and do stuff like that in the real world.

As far as violent video games go, I can remember playing the first Mortal Kombat in the arcade when it came out, that doesn't mean I wanted to go out on the street and attempt to knock someone's head off. You can say "but the graphics were so cheesy" but you have to look at the time it came out. That was a cutting-edge style of game for the early-90s.

My point is that if proper foundation is established at a young age, they'll understand it's all fantasy when they see it. Video games included.

And if that person fails as a parent, then they don't need to have anymore kids... And foster off the ones they already have before they damage them any more.

I know exactly what you mean. Parenting, obviously, plays a huge role in any child's development, and one of the primary things parents are obligated to do if their children watch a lot of movies or play a lot of videogames is to teach them the difference between reality and fantasy. That's it. That's really all they have to do. And if the kid goes psycho, it's more than likely they were disturbed to begin with.

Sadly, good parenting is a dying race on the verge of extinction these days, it seems....

 

[Remleiz]

The answer is obviously no, its the same vien as 'do horror movies make people murderers', the fact is you have to ask, does showing murderers my little pony make them better to society? of course not, same applies with games making murderers or violent kids.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

I wish video games caused violence because then I could use it as an excuse when I kill my co-workers. In all honesty though I grow tired of this growing epidemic in Western Civilization where we must blame inanimate objects for the woes of the world it reminds me of pagans who would blame Idols for the exact same problems.

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

I swear, the 'do-videogames-cause-increased-instances-of-violence' argument is like a giant Ouroboros snake devouring itself over and over again, because this argument never ends, it just continues.

All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again. Srsly.

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

Firstly games like manhunt etc. are rated '18' for a reason.

Secondly, yes seeing someone attack someone else will give you the idea of imitating it. But those people who actually go out and kill someone, well they're already a bit over the edge. Its not the game's fault.
Heck if someone read a book on wars and went and shot someone with an old bolt rifle, would they blame the books? Unlikely.

Some people i think try to use games as an excuse to hide real causes, like psychological defects or bad parenting.

Not too long ago a guy tried to steal a taxi (in brazil i think) and ended up killing the taxi driver. The minute this guy was arrested he claimed it was because of GTA IV, i mean to me that seems really suspcious. It sounded like he was using the game as an excuse to commit a crime.