Honestly, in this case I am having a hard time standing up for games since we can only wonder why an 8 year old kid would commit a murder. It's hard to rule out games as a factor here.
However let's point out the facts that we're given in this case.
The kid, 8 years old, murdered his caregiver.
The kid, 8 years old, is allowed to play GTA IV, a violent game rated mature 18.
The kid, 8 years old, was allowed by his caregiver to play with a gun, obviously loaded with live ammunition.
Games might have been a factor here, we don't know. Even if they could make an 8 year old kid a good witness and he'd be able to give a good testimony we couldn't be sure.
However if we survey the situation bad parenting and upbringing is something we can't remove ourselves from when looking at the facts. The kid was allowed to play an 18+ game, maybe that's irresponsible. Ratings are meant for guidance and are currently not a matter of the law, but still, we should pay attention to them at least a little. This indicates some degree of irresponsible parenting. Then there's the big whooper. The kid is allowed to play with an actual gun while the caregiver is watching TV. Basically, unsupervised kid playing with a dangerous weapon. Possibly not sure how dangerous, maybe not aware of the fact that it's real or maybe unaware that it's loaded. He might have intentionally pointed it at her head and pulled the trigger, but was he actually intending to kill someone?
The Unworthy Gentleman said:
I've said it in every thread like this, both I and my brother played GTA since we were kids. My dad refused to allow me to play GTA when I was young for a while but it wasn't long before I began, I'd have been around 8, 9 or 10 when I started. I have yet to shoot either of my parents, my brother or sister and I haven't didn't go on a shooting rampage around my school. Neither did hundreds of thousands of other kids like me who played violent video games as children. No, we all had parents who didn't neglect to teach us right, wrong, and the difference between reality and entertainment media.
Actually this is something of a fallacy right there. "I've played violent video games, I'm fine" is not really a valid defence for video games. I know a few people who have been smoking for about 60 years and they haven't got cancer. Does that mean smoking doesn't lead to cancer?
I know we don't get cancer for one reason alone, I know a lot of genes (both good and bad) are unlikely to ever show their effect except in certain environments and I don't think we become violent for one reason alone. There's got to be thousands of kids being neglected every year. They don't all turn into murderers, I'm sure some of them even turn out to be decent normal people. Does that mean neglect should never be suspected of leading to irregular behaviour?
Gaming might be a factor, but how much influence does it have? Is gaming the trigger, an additive factor or a synergistic factor in the path to becoming a violent person? We don't know, but some people believe it's a major reason or even the only reason. This is almost as ignorant as believing it isn't involved at all. We are the product of our upbringing and our experiences. We can't rule out gaming as a factor, but we can rule it out as
the reason.
Now let me conclude by saying I don't think gaming leads to violence, nor that it's a huge or influential factor in the process. All I am saying is that we shouldn't rule out anything.
