Mother Claims Videogames Made Her Son Kill

[Slayer0019]

Pretty much all of you are right.
"I didn't even realize games had age limits on them. We'd just buy him the game that all the other kids had." <-- Biggest mistake parents make. My parents have no problem buying me games with higher up ratings, as long as they know what the game is about. Which is why the let me play Gears of War, which has a clear storyline and motive, and not Grand Theft Auto, which revolves around stealing, carjacking, and shooting at cops.
"If they can cause a trigger to be pulled in someone's head they should be banned." This one she has a fraction of merit on. I'll give her that violent games can pull a mental trigger. However, pulling the the trigger isn't the bad part here. Crappy parenting loaded the gun, and ditching the kid to run off to Spain aimed it. Its the parents' fault, primarily the mother's, who was under the impression that "Oh, he was a good boy, he would never do that, he's my little angel..."

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I am indeed! Shame on me. I even remember watching a documentary about horror films where the writer had said he had wanted to create 'an entire family of Ed Geins'.

You are forgiven, just for having a picture from Battle Royale. And I blame the parents whole<3ly.

 

[Break]

My favourite bit is this:

"Stuart never gave us any reason to think he was violent at all," she said. "He was a very normal boy - quiet and reserved. I used to call him 'my little professor.'"

Which is later followed by:

He also behaved disruptively throughout the trial, uttering threats and obscenities.

The mother must have been describing what he was like as a child, since I can't imagine how he could change like that just because he's on trial. If this is the case, then it's hardly relevant. She may as well be saying "puberty caused my son to kill!" and trying to ban teenagers.

 

[Fire Daemon]

It seems as if any crime that a teenager commits it can be linked back to a videogame.

But to understand why puplic out cry at video games is occuring we need to look at public opininon of children playing games.

It is beleived by people outside of the gaming circle that games are designed for children (this explains why a little amount of parents look at the rating, because they beleive the game is designed for little timmy). So when they hear about a kid that kills people after playing GTA then they get worried because they beleive their children are being encouraged to commit crimes.

And everyone knows how impressionable kids are (look at wrestling and how stupid kids act out those fake moves on each other).

So when mothers/fathers hear about kids playing violent video games they staright away think that the gaming industrie made those games to get kids to act out the game in real life.

I know, and you the reader of this post know that it is total BS. However a lot of people don't and the media is playing that quite well.

 

[X nosgoth X]

We have yet to get such a story where I live, though I have no doubt it will be here soon. This has been a problem for a long time now, and whenever the issue dies down a bit, no pun intended, some new kid comes along and starts stabbing his younger brother with a screwdriver (I know that's not the case here, but it has happened). But the biggest problem is the group of people who, without knowing anything about gaming or how it can influence a person, immediately start pointing their fingers at whatever gamedeveloper they can find.

If your child plays a violent game and starts killing people, there's obviously something wrong with him. True, children are impressionable, but only to some extent. Nobody paid attention to me when I was a child, and nobody ever cared about the games I played. I played games I was much too young for, and I have never seriously considered killing someone.

In fact, the anger the child, or in this case the man, took out on the woman is the anger I always take out on the game. If my work or education leaves me irritated, I play games and murder hordes of aliens/demons/insert enemy here. When I'm done, I feel better.

Of course it is a big deal that he murdered someone but blaming it on videogames is as retarded as the people in the 1950's yelling the hip movement of Elvis made him the devil. Pull your heads out of your asses and realize this man was simply malfunctioning, or he had been severely angered by something even before he played the videogame he played that day.

But like the the person who, as I'm typing this, was the last to post here already pointed out, this is something we all know already, but also something that will keep being an issue because of the media and stupid people.

 

[squirrelman42]

Another case of parents not raising their children with good values that want a scapegoat

 

[GloatingSwine]

EDITED NOTE: Keep in mind, the game's titles don't usually scream 'Violent'
Clive Barker's Jericho (most mothers have never even heard of hell Raiser or Leprechaun), Grand Theft Auto (hints at car stelaing, not murder rape and drugs), Halo Combat Evolved (My dad's in the navy and had no clue what the hell that was supposed to mean), none of those sound disturbingly violent to me.

Keep in mind: Both of those games are, in this country, rated 18. That means that it is illegal to sell them to anyone under that age. This kind of game rating has been going on for quite a while now (since the original Carmageddon, I think, the first BBFC rated game).

This legal restriction means that someone had to provide these games to the individual in question, almost certainly a legal guardian, his mother or father. It is up to parents to decide what media their children are exposed to, and if this mother did not know that, or did know and did not take appropriate action, then that is a failure of parenting.

A child watches Solid Snake kill for half of his deveoping life, and he gets angry, he's GOING to resort to violence if he never learned how to properly contain his anger. IT CAN HAPPEN PEOPLE! Quit acting like just because you didn't, others won't either.

Again, Metal Gear Solid games generally a 15 rating. If someone under 15 has access to them, then it is because their parents have chosen to allow them.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I don't think media can have any effect on a healthy person, no matter their age. I was playing GTA 3 when I was ten, it was just a game.

Though, I must admit I felt a bit sick 2 years later when I found out what Donald Love meant when he was making various refrences about "parties". I fucking hate that character long time.

 

[J-Val]

Young people may be more gullible, but they aren't mounds of wet clay. They wouldn't just go out and shoot someone because a collection of pixels did it on the television.

 

[AnGeL.SLayer]

It has nothing to do with him playing videogames. if youd go out and kill someone like that to start with something is wrong in your head. mentally wrong. the games and anything to help him get the nerve up to auctally go commit murder is just stepping stones. If you let a normal little boy play video games he isnt going to turn into a killer because of it. She failed as a mother in teaching her son the fine line between fantasy and reality. Right and wrong. would you just give your child anything without first knowing everything about it? she didnt do her part as a parent. It goes to say the boy has always had mental issues but she could have prevented this in the long run. that nurse didnt have to die. all becuase the mother was too neglectful of her sons' life. This is why you TALK to your children. they are children and need someone to guide them. you dont just throw them anything they want and let them run a muck. children cant raise themselfs. hence why as parents we dont spit em out and then drop them off in the wild to make it on their own. id bet money they saw that their son had some emotional or temper issues and just choose to ignore it. ignorance is bliss. Its easier to not see the truth when its stareing you in the face.

 

[Kronopticon]

its all fine and dandy to make unproven claims that it was games that caused such events, but the whole fact is, that pretty much everyone plays games. so by chance, someone, is going to kill someone. i rest my case on this matter, as i dont want to spend much more time on the internet before santa comes and kicks my arse.

although, if he did exist, he's probably see my point of justice, and know that i drink over-excessive amounts of diet coke disabling me from the sleep option, either way, if they say its games that caused it, im going to say, humanity caused it, and a drop in the population might just be a good thing; im sure santa would like a few less people to deliver to, and im sure someone like me going on a vigilante rampage through my chav infested town wouldnt be unwelcome, viva la murder. yes, im that odd, if you hear my name in the news, know that i bloomin told you so. i probably wont, but just as a christmas warning before i go psychotic after someone breaks into my house and steals my valuables.

 

[Easykill]

Are most people as easy to influence when theyre young as you guys seem to be saying? I got exposed to all kinds of stuff as a kid but my understanding of right and wrong has always been the same... "Good" and "bad" rolemodels had little to no bearing on my personality, and neither did games. When you see something it emerges as a possibility. Something its possible for you to do. Its what you DO do that reflects your personality. If you removed all evidence it was possible to kill another person, that would probably lower the murder rate because they just wouldnt think of it. But videogames dont cause people to be unstable, although they do attract already unstable people, they just provide the idea. As does almost all media, since almost all media has a violent side. But maybe thats just me.

 

[twilight_dweller]

So, instead of blaming her poor parenting skills, she blames video games?

 

[Deaf_Skull]

Young people may be more gullible, but they aren't mounds of wet clay. They wouldn't just go out and shoot someone because a collection of pixels did it on the television.

So, instead of blaming her poor parenting skills, she blames video games?

they sum it up.

ive been playing games far above my age level sins i was around 5 or 6, given i went much good back then and yea i sometimes walk down the street and think "he/she would make an entertaining victim!" but i don't go around blugering people to death with a baseball bat or similar goar bringer. This is where good self discipline comes in and you dont even need good perents for that, you just need 1s that set a good example.

 

[ChaosStep]

Video games can inspire whether its violent or not, but so can movies and comic books etc
Eventually some easily impressionable kid will go out and kill because it looked cool in a game or movie, its an inevitability of human stupidity and we were a violent species to begin with...

These days not many people think for themselves, we all follow the media, so its a lot more likely that someone will replicate what they see.
Even though i'v been playing violent games since i was a young'un and never tried to kill anyone, i'm not gonna say video games cant inspire someone to kill but blaming them for every teenage murder these days is fucking rediculous.

Untill someone actually runs about suffocating people with blue plastic bags or dressing up in white robes and stabbing people in the neck, they should leave games alone.

 

[NexusBlade]

Let's think about this. We know she isn't gonna blame her kid or herself, but, let's think. I know the cause this time wasn't games, but this goes out to all the other stories the media gurgles out every other month. How is it the games fault? Eh? It eventually reaches to parents, because they didn't tell their kid that this stuff is fake, and they souldn't replicate it. I got that treatment as a young one. So now I know the my GRAW 2 is fake and I shouldn't replicate what it tells me. All those other times the balme is the parents. Sorry, I'm off to bed.

 

[savagegoose]

im an adult, and after a particular long session of playing gta3 i had to walk to the store to buy some stuff. on the way there, i eyed up some cars that i could " jack" , as it would be quicker than walking. then i relaised i wasnt playing the game any more. long sleepless sessions of game play will do this to you. but its weather you act on the anti social thought that counts. i recall at the time thinking, man i gotta take a break form this game. and also that it would requre more effort from me than hitting my enter button , and slamming down the w key.

then theres the whole actions/consequences deal, end result i had to walk.

 

[intplee]

"For a long time I didn't even realize games had age limits on them. We'd just buy him the game that all the other kids had."

Most of whom are, quite conspicuously, not vicious murderers. It is fascinating to watch someone rip the rug out from underneath their own argument, almost in the same sentence, no less. But it is also an indication of the kind of person we are dealing with here, though still strange. In short, she is trying to explain a distinct characteristic of her son i.e. being a vicious murderer, by referring to an experience which, she acknowledges, he shared with "all the other kids" i.e. playing videogames. Hmm, yeah okay.