Crap! Now what am I gonna blame my kids psycho killer attitude on?

Video games don't create killers, new book says
By Scott Hillis

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Playing video games does not turn children into deranged, blood-thirsty super-killers, according to a new book by a pair of Harvard researchers.

Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, a husband-and-wife team at Harvard Medical School, detail their views in "Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do", which came out last month and promises to reshape the debate on the effects of video games on kids.

"What I hope people realize is that there is no data to support the simple-minded concerns that video games cause violence," Kutner told Reuters.

The pair reached that conclusion after conducting a two-year study of more than 1,200 middle-school children about their attitudes towards video games.

continued: http://snipurl.com/284uq

Drugs?

I guessing lack of responsibility on the part of the parents.

Jim H said:

Amen

They state School Shootings had nothing to deal with violent games, the Virginia Tech Shooter never played video games, they found however that apparently violent games and aggression are connected but killers are not created by video games.

People that are likely to kill other people probably DO enjoy violent video games, however just because someone enjoys violent video games does not mean they are likely to kill other people.
While I was growing up I used to read Robert E. Howard (Conan, Red Sonja, etc.), Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, Mars), and watched westerns and war movies all of the time, I also watched Tom & Jerry, Heckle and Jeckle, and Roadrunner before that. I own firearms, and enjoy shooting them. I've never hit someone over the head with a hammer, sliced them up with a two handed sword (or ax for that matter), lit them on fire with a blow torch, dropped an anvil on them, called them out for a duel at high noon, or any other time of day, or sniped at someone from cover. In more recent times, I've not shaved my head bald and by changing my clothes gone unnoticed while assasinating someone, I've never car jacked anyone, nor have I killed any aliens or demons in dank, dark dungeons or abandoned military installations (I want to, but just can't seem to find Area 51 on mapquest).
Those of you that know me, know that I'm not the most socially well adjusted person out there, but I'm taking care of my wife and children, I have regular contact with my mother, and have refained from killing anyone in recent years.....If I can do it, the millions of other game players out there can do so as well.

Gerritt

Anybody that ever thought Video games do create killers need a head exam.

Super XP said:


Or a Lobotomy.

Over 90% of killers were breast fed as babies. They should pass a law bannig breast feeding or put a warning on the nipple so the baby can understand the risk of becoming a serial killer.

Gerrtt. John Carter on Mars was awesome. I read all 10 books.

angryhippy said:

Given they were/are awesome (The John Carter series (were there actually 10?!?!)), they are also racist, violent, and misogenistic to the extreme! Yet here I am working for folks in the Caribbean, married to a Japanese (VERY Americanized by now...darn it), and raising two "mixed" daughters. And I still haven't beaten anyone up since playing those nasty nasty video games....

I was into cowboy movies. Now, every once in a while, I wanna go out and kill me a heathen redskin, and rescue his white squaw captive wife, and leave their kids freezing in the snow. As luck would have it, everytime I get that urge, I manage to get hooked up with a scantily clad oriental looking Martian Princess.
http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/04/09/ffddpm.jpg

Payton,
Is that a Frazetta print?
Sorry for the spelling if I'm wrong, but yeh, I was into the posters as well.
Along with prints like that, I used to read something called the "GOR" series, I can't recall the author, but it was REH/ERB taken to what the kids these days call an EXTREME.
IT was about a planet that existed within our solar system, but was on the exact same orbit and on the other side fo the SUN....some really weird shtuf going on there....and don't get me off on to DAHLGRIN, sorry for the spelling again, but these are SF and or Fantasy CLASSICS.

Gerritt

Yes I think so. I remember I was about 12 and I would lay on the couch for hours reading John Carter, Tarzan, Ian Fleming's Bond books, (before any Bond movies had been made) and pretty much anything by John LeCarre. I liked the spy stuff. I also was into the Asimov stuff like the Foundation Trilogy and such. I hardly ever read anymore. My eyes are pretty much shot from 20 years in the dark room, and welfare spectacles that give me a headache regardless of what I look at.