Computer games have negative effects on children and society [Archives:2008/1217/Last Page]

Salah Al-Warafy
For the Yemen Times
“Kill her. Use the gun and shoot her now!” Screamed a nine-year-old boy to his friend while playing a violent computer game in Ayad's Internet Cafe.

If you walk into Ayad's Internet Cafe, you have to wait until children finish their games so that you can find a computer to use. This wait becomes longer as children become more skillful in playing these games.

This is the case in most internet cafes in Yemen.

We live in a world where children have easy access to many things that should be banned from them. Nowadays, it seems normal to see children playing bloody, violent games that break all rules. These games have negative effects on the minds of innocent children.

Ayad Alturky, an internet cafe owner in Taiz, said that most of his customers are children and adolescents.

''Throughout the day, children are my main customers. It is at night that a few customers use the internet for useful purposes,” said Ayad. He added that he cannot ban children from playing such games because children can easily download them from internet.

In Ayad's Internet Cafe, like in other internet cafes, children are used to playing bloody and sadistic and brutal games, such as Grand Theft Auto, where players can reenact raping a woman, beating and killing people, breaking traffic laws, stealing cars, and shooting the police.

David Grossman is one of the world's foremost experts in the field of violence and violent crime. He specifically specializes in the study of the psychology of killing, which he calls 'killology.' In his book, Stop Teaching our Kids to Kill, he says that “certain types of video games are actually killing brain stimulators, and they teach our kids to kill. The interactive quality, the intensity of the violence, and the physiological reactions all serve to connect the players' feelings of exhilaration and accomplishment directly to the violent images of video. And that 'good' feeling keeps the player wanting to play more.”

The idea that video games allow children to develop learning techniques early on has been discredited in research conducted by the Joan Janz Cooney Centre (JJCC). Playing bloody computer games causes many problems for children on the one hand and for society on the other. According to researchers at the center, these problems include increasing juvenile delinquency, rewiring children's brains towards violence, breaking rules, and isolating children from the outside world.

The bombardment of the senses with fast-pace action games is said to be causing a shortening of the attention span, thus harming the ability to learn, according to British national newspaper 'The Daily Mail.' Researchers from the JJCC, who investigate the relationship between children, the media, and technology, looked at more than 300 products including computer games, toys, and educational software for home computers. Of these, only two educational video games employed proven learning techniques.

In addition, games like Grand Theft Auto or other driving games encourage children to break the speed limit, which in reality often results in fatal accidents. Such games are contributing to a teenage lack of responsibility when they drive real cars, as they show off in street races and crash for fun.

Dave Evans, a German superintendent, said that “video games have a negative impact on young drivers because it increases their complacency and indulgence in risk-taking behavior. ''In games you race, you crash, and it is a matter of pressing the buttons and off you go again. In real life it doesn't work that way – you can be killed,” he added.

Video games involving bloody and violent actions increase juvenile violence. These games show juveniles the simplicity of committing crimes and killing people. According to Jane Healy, an educational psychologist from JJCC, research indicates that computer games fuel the development of the basic 'flight or fight' instincts rather than stimulate considered reasoning.

In addition, playing video games has a negative social and psychological impact on children. These games make children less sociable, less confident, and more introverted. Researchers from JJCC found that computer games involve children sitting isolated in front of a computer screen.

Alice Cohn from the Cartoon Network said at a Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas earlier this year that technology is delivering huge benefits. “We should not be worried about technology changing the face of play, but rather that all kids have access to the best kinds of technology,” she said.

Alturkey recommends that there should be a censorship board from the Ministry of Telecommunication to ban websites offering aggressive, sadistic, and bloody games. Stressing the role that parents play in the well-being of their children, he adds that “parents should also be responsible and take care of their children.”
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