SpenniesVirtual Violence
January 5th 2007 23:56
There's nothing like a new year to start a new blog.
The Dissident will piece together a general overview of what's going on in science and technology across the world, and take a stab at anything that makes the blood boil.
From the ideological battle front of intelligent design to the increasing demand for compact gadgets, from spam to pink PSPs, from national identity cards to therapeutic cloning - this blog will tackle those issues that arise in a technologically innovative and self-aware society, spanning from the mildly annoying to the potentially harmful.
Undoubtedly there is a lot more to discover and understand, in both science and technology, but as talents in both fields grow and multiply, there is an ever-increasing need to continually question the motives that drive us and rationalise the objectives we aim for.
So, without any further philosophising, here is the first topic:
"German gamers face jail for acts of virtual violence"
(The Guardian, December 12, 2006)
[link]
Once again, politicians feel the desire to dictate moral code. This time Germany’s parliament has proposed that cruelty on humans in video games should be a punishable offence for ‘promoting’ real life violence.
And, once again, the reason behind this absurdity is a school shooting in the Netherlands, where one teenager wounded 37 people in his former school before killing himself. Apparently, he was a fan of Counter Strike.
But aren't we missing something? Like perhaps the fact that there is no current research showing a link between violence in video games and violent acts in the real world? Or that it seems more rational to blame a suicidal teenager’s actions on severe depression, poor parenting and lax gun laws than it is on video games?
The Columbine high school shootings in Colorado in 1999 provoked debate on the role and influence of violent movies and video games in American society, especially on the youth. Unfortunately these issues, together with things like the Internet and heavy metal music, were unnecessarily demonised and talked about entirely too much as the main cause of these teenagers losing the plot. As a result, the real issue - gun control laws - was side-stepped. Why blame the government when there’s perfectly good scapegoats lying all over the place?
The shooting in the Netherlands caused one of the drastic bill’s sponsors, Bavarian interior minister Günther Beckstein, to claim that “…it is absolutely beyond any doubt that such killer games desensitise unstable characters and can have a stimulating effect.’’ How does Mr Beckstein know this? How can Mr Beckstein have absolutely no doubt, when researchers, psychologists and scientists alike have yet to still find a link?
Words such as these from heads of government do not contribute to a safer society. They contribute to a moral panic (not to mention a media frenzy) about things which are not understood and liked on a wide scale, and serve to diminish the freedoms of those who are doing nothing wrong by participating in those things.
The Dissident will piece together a general overview of what's going on in science and technology across the world, and take a stab at anything that makes the blood boil.
From the ideological battle front of intelligent design to the increasing demand for compact gadgets, from spam to pink PSPs, from national identity cards to therapeutic cloning - this blog will tackle those issues that arise in a technologically innovative and self-aware society, spanning from the mildly annoying to the potentially harmful.
Undoubtedly there is a lot more to discover and understand, in both science and technology, but as talents in both fields grow and multiply, there is an ever-increasing need to continually question the motives that drive us and rationalise the objectives we aim for.
So, without any further philosophising, here is the first topic:
"German gamers face jail for acts of virtual violence"
(The Guardian, December 12, 2006)
[link]
Once again, politicians feel the desire to dictate moral code. This time Germany’s parliament has proposed that cruelty on humans in video games should be a punishable offence for ‘promoting’ real life violence.
And, once again, the reason behind this absurdity is a school shooting in the Netherlands, where one teenager wounded 37 people in his former school before killing himself. Apparently, he was a fan of Counter Strike.
Just a bit of fun or a serious threat to society?
But aren't we missing something? Like perhaps the fact that there is no current research showing a link between violence in video games and violent acts in the real world? Or that it seems more rational to blame a suicidal teenager’s actions on severe depression, poor parenting and lax gun laws than it is on video games?
The Columbine high school shootings in Colorado in 1999 provoked debate on the role and influence of violent movies and video games in American society, especially on the youth. Unfortunately these issues, together with things like the Internet and heavy metal music, were unnecessarily demonised and talked about entirely too much as the main cause of these teenagers losing the plot. As a result, the real issue - gun control laws - was side-stepped. Why blame the government when there’s perfectly good scapegoats lying all over the place?
The shooting in the Netherlands caused one of the drastic bill’s sponsors, Bavarian interior minister Günther Beckstein, to claim that “…it is absolutely beyond any doubt that such killer games desensitise unstable characters and can have a stimulating effect.’’ How does Mr Beckstein know this? How can Mr Beckstein have absolutely no doubt, when researchers, psychologists and scientists alike have yet to still find a link?
Words such as these from heads of government do not contribute to a safer society. They contribute to a moral panic (not to mention a media frenzy) about things which are not understood and liked on a wide scale, and serve to diminish the freedoms of those who are doing nothing wrong by participating in those things.
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