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BCIFV home > Media Releases > July 13, 2000


For Immediate Release
Contact: Penny Bain, (604) 669-7055
July 13, 2000

Opinion Piece

Anti-violence group praises Attorney General

by Penny Bain and Lynne Melcombe
BC Institute Against Family Violence

 

The BC Institute Against Family Violence applauds the Attorney General's decision to make the extremely violent video game, Soldier of Fortune, unavailable to minors. Evidence about the way violent entertainment affects certain children, and the repercussions that has for the rest of society, lend support to Minister Petter's precedent-setting move.

Does violent entertainment lead children to become violent? There is evidence that it does. A 1987 study noted that the more violent the programs children watch at age one, the more aggressive they tend to be at age 19, and the more serious the crimes for which they are convicted at age 30. And since then, both the quantity of violent films and games and the intensity of the violence in them has increased.

But does violent entertainment have the same impact on all children? Obviously not. Anecdotally, we all know kids who play violent video games and watch violent movies but clearly are not about to commit rape, murder, or even shoplift a chocolate bar.

Which children, then, are most likely to be affected by entertainment violence? The critical factor differentiating those who will be affected from those who won't appears to lie in the way children are raised, beginning with their earliest experiences.

Recent research shows violence in the home shapes young lives from the earliest months of life. Stress hormones too frequently released in the infant brain by even the sounds of violence can cause neurological damage that predispose the growing child to react violently to stimuli from sources such as violent video games.

This continues throughout childhood. A 1995 study showed that the children most likely to be swayed to violence by violent entertainment are those who have difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction because of the violence in their daily lives.

Does the violence children experience at home have to be direct to have this effect on them? Research suggests not. Stuart Hart, Director of the Office for the Study of the Psychological Rights of the Child at Purdue University, has observed that psychological maltreatment is a stronger predictor than physical or sexual abuse of violent outcomes in an individual's life.

For example, children who grow up either witnessing spousal assault or being verbally abused often exhibit the same behaviours symptomatic of psychological damage as children who grow up in war zones. These children can become violent without ever being physically abused.

If children exposed to family violence are the most likely to be triggered by violent entertainment, and children who experience psychological maltreatment are more predisposed to violence than children who are hit, then the violence children experience clearly does not need to be obvious, direct, or extreme to place them at a high risk of becoming violent as a result of exposure to entertainment violence.

And when the violence is as graphic as it is in games like Soldier of Fortune - with characters suffering hideous deaths, complete with sound effects, at the hands of the player - it is only logical that the risk will be heightened.

Are the children most likely to be affected in this way in a majority in Canadian society? We hope not, but precisely because psychological maltreatment is difficult to observe, we lack reliable statistics on how many children suffer from it.

But even if we optimistically assume that these children are in a minority, isn't reducing entertainment violence to protect a minority an intrusion on the rights of the majority who enjoy them without detriment? We think not, for several reasons.

First, we question whether any majority has a right to participate in activities that may be harmful to others, and particularly children, simply because they are the majority.

Second, while it remains uncertain how many children are affected by violent entertainment, we must add to their numbers those who are affected by the violence committed by those who are directly affected now and in the future.

Third, we all pay the price of living in an increasingly violent society, a society in which the risk of violence escalates every time we fail to protect our vulnerable children.

There is no question that graphically violent entertainment hurts some children more than others, and probably hurts more children than we know. We strongly believe that we ignore the damage done to those children at their peril, and our own. And we wholeheartedly support Minister Petter for having the vision to see the long-term price of extreme entertainment violence - and refusing to pay it.

Penny Bain is Executive Director and Lynne Melcombe is Communications Consultant at the BC Institute Against Family Violence.

 

Suggested Sidebars

From the website of the National Institute on Media and the Family, www.mediaandthefamily.com/research/vgrc/1999-1.shtml.

Video game facts:

  • Video and computer games are among children's most asked-for gifts.
  • Seventy-seven percent of US teenagers now own a video game console. Additional teens play games on home computers.
  • Electronic games are only 27 years old and require technical skill to play. As a result, most parents and other adults over 30 are not knowledgeable about games and their content.
  • Rapidly advancing technology guarantees that players will experience game environments with increasingly greater "real world" interactions.
  • In violent games, children must become more violent to win.
  • Action figures associated with several violent games rated inappropriate for children are being marketed to children as young as four.

Promotional messages that portray violence as fun:

  • "New kids on the block . time to introduce them to your 50-caliber friend." Promo for Half Life.
  • "Blood. Spill some." Promo for Blood.
  • "Your motto? Just kill, baby." Promo for Carmageddon.
  • "All the killin'. Twice the humour." Promo for Red Neck Rampage.
  • "I'm going to cut off your arm and beat you senseless with it." Promo for Die by the Sword.

Media tidbits:

  • Game industry world-wide video retail sales will reach $15 billion this year. (Business Wire, 1998)
  • 62% of American families have video game equipment. (Annenberg Public Policy Centre, 1997)
  • Boys age 8-14 years are the core audience. (US Senate Sub-committee Hearings, 1994)
  • 65% of video game market is boys. (Boston Globe, 1995)
  • Michael Carneal, the 14-year-old shooter who killed two children and wounded five others in Paducah, Kentucky in 1997, learned to aim by playing point-and-shoot games at home. (Associated Press, March 2000)

Tips for parents:

  • Limit game playing time. Recommended: no more than one hour per day.
  • Play with your child to become familiar with the games.
  • Provide alternative ways for child to spend time.
  • Require that homework and jobs be done first; use video game playing as a reward.
  • Do not put a video game set in a child's room where they can shut the door and isolate themselves.
  • Talk about the content of the games.
  • Ask your video store to require parental approval before a violently rated video game can be rented by children.
  • Finally, encourage play with friends away from video game set.

For more information on the influence of violence in media on children, click on these links to the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence:
www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/familyviolence/html/mediaviolence-e/1effects.htm
www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/familyviolence/html/mediaviolence.htm
www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/familyviolence/html/tvviolence.htm
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