By Madeline Marks | staff writer
Can video games kill? Of course not. No video game is going to leap out of the console and murder its player in cold blood. Video games can’t kill — but people can.
Take the case of Daniel Petric, 16, who killed his mother and shot his father because they took Halo 3 away from him.
In September 2007, Daniel, then 16, snuck out of his house to purchase the game against his father’s orders. When he returned home, his parents found out, and took the game from him. His father, Mark, a minister, put the game in the lock-box where he also kept his handgun.
About a month later, on Oct. 20, 2007, Daniel used his father’s key to open the lockbox, and stole the game and the gun. Daniel shot his parents, killing his mother and injuring his father. Daniel then tried to place the gun in his father’s hand.
After reading a news report about the incident published Dec. 15, 2008, in Cleveland’s Plain Dealer, public responses to it were shocking. Posts such as, “Just think, if they’d allowed the game, none of this would have happened,” “Parents sooo had it coming. Poor kid,” “It’s the parents fault, not the kids fault. He just wanted to play an OK game,” and “I would kill for Halo.”
Another story paints a similar picture. A 13-year-old boy, Noah Crooks, killed his mother with his .22, after sexually assaulting her. He claimed he committed the violent acts because she took away his Call Of Duty game as punishment for his bad grades.
There are so many stories depicting these teens, these children, murdering or doing something reckless and most likely regretful because of a video game.
The most recent incident was in Baton Rouge, La., when 20-year-old Zachary Burgees stole a truck with a woman inside it, crashed into nine vehi- cles on the side of the road, just because he wanted to know what Grand Theft Auto would feel like.
So who is to blame for all of this? Is it the game’s fault? The children’s fault? The parents’ fault? What really leads to this violent behavior? What really leads to these children and teens finally snapping? Opinions vary.
“I do not feel playing violent video games will lead to violent behavior alone,” said Jerilyn Weiss, a psychology teacher here at Indian Trail. “There would have to be other existing risk factors in addition to playing the violent game(s). For example, if the child is already dealing with depression, anger issues, abuse, neglect and so forth.”
“We have discussed this topic in my psychology course. Many students play the violent video games and find it fun because they know they would never do the things in real life. It’s make believe,” Weiss said.
Barb David, another Indian Trail psychology teacher, has a different view.
“I do believe that video games could affect someone negatively. I think that some parents do not limit the amount of time that is spent on games and the types of games that their children are playing.”
“I think that parents may have the misconception that because it is a game and not a movie or a television program, that restricting the content is not as important,” David said. “In many ways, it is more important since the child is actively engaging in the game in a much more realistic way.” When a child watches a movie or a television program, it is easier to see this as separate from him or herself, she explained. The child not given proper time restrictions and unsupervised and unmonitored in playing video games could definitely see problems down the road in areas of behavior and/or academics, David said.
Violence in video games has often been used as a scapegoat for other serious crimes which bothers some people in society.
“Nobody can take responsibility for their own actions,” said David Gloria, a Communications senior and also avid video game lover. Barb David agreed.
“The media is eager to jump on a story that links video games to violence even when many times there is no link there at all,” she said. “I think it boils down to personal and parental responsibility when it comes to playing video games.”
If the video game isn’t to blame, then who is? If the problem is some other mental illness, or just an impressionable mind, why aren’t parents working on the mental illness? Why are they allowing their children to play such violent video games?
“The guidelines for the ratings placed on the video games, I believe, should be followed. Like anything in the media, we have to be careful what children are exposed to and at what age,” Weiss said.
In the early ‘60s, a famous study called the “Bobo Doll Experiment” was conducted by Albert Bandura. The children imitated violent behaviors they saw adults do. The experiment has been repeated throughout time with identical results.
“Following his [Bandura’s] study, many of the ratings systems in movies and television [that we have grown used to] followed, along with cries from par- ents that there was too much violence being targeted at their children,” David said.
The out-cry appears to contradict the latest popularity of violence in film and video games permeating through American society.
“Americans abhor and at the same time glorify violence. We say we want to protect our children yet we produced more violent films than any other nation,” she said, “I do not think that games are to blame for what a society values. I think we should probably rethink who is to blame for the problem of violence in our society because it is a far more complex problem than that.”
Video games can be violent, addictive, engaging and ever-changing. But they are also fun, entertaining and visual.
Society may never really know why these kids turn violent.