Dianne Feinstein: Congress May Take Action On Video Game Violence

[MicroBalrog]

[Nick1911]

Yes, the world is filled with things that influence us.  Consider all those advertisements on TV; the billboards on the side of the highway, radio ads - these are all people actively trying to manipulate you.  There's a whole field around it - "marketing".

And you know what?  That's fine.  Being free means living in a world where there are good and bad influences abound, including stimuli that is specifically trying to influence you, and stimuli that is really isn't.  It's up to each individual to decide what they will let into their lives, and how much they will let others control them by the influence of videogames/television/radio/the internet/conversations/etc.

We do not need to be censoring the world to save the poor impressionable children from being negatively influenced.  That's what parents are for.

The content is already rated and restricted by age.  So, if 12 year old little Johnny spends all day flipping bits on a hard drive "wasting bad guys" in FarCry, you can be assured that it was either bought by, or at least consented to by the parent(s).  This is a "problem" the tech already solved [1][2][3] , it only requires the parents will to use it.

[Balog]

Have you ever read through the classic fairy tales? Not just the popular ones, but the entire Grimm's? So, so violent and depraved. And if you want Grand Theft Auto levels of sex and violence, try the Old Testament and specifically the book of Judges.

Jdg 1:5 They found Adoni-bezek at Bezek and fought against him and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. 


 Jdg 1:6 Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and caught him and cut off his thumbs and his big toes. 


 Jdg 1:7 And Adoni-bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has repaid me." And they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. 

Jdg 4:21 But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent peg, and took a hammer in her hand. Then she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple until it went down into the ground while he was lying fast asleep from weariness. So he died. 

Jdg 5:24 "Most blessed of women be Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, of tent-dwelling women most blessed. 


 Jdg 5:25 He asked for water and she gave him milk; she brought him curds in a noble's bowl. 


 Jdg 5:26 She sent her hand to the tent peg and her right hand to the workmen's mallet; she struck Sisera; she crushed his head; she shattered and pierced his temple. 


 Jdg 5:27 Between her feet he sank, he fell, he lay still; between her feet he sank, he fell; where he sank, there he fell--dead. 

[Monkeyleg]

Yes, the world is filled with things that influence us.  Consider all those advertisements on TV; the billboards on the side of the highway, radio ads - these are all people actively trying to manipulate you.  There's a whole field around it - "marketing".

Aren't you implying causation or correlation?

Balog, are you really trying to equate the effect of reading about violence in fairy tales or the Bible to fairly realistically killing people ultra-violently on screen?

[Balog]

I'm saying that the media we take in does influence us, regardless of what form it takes. But that's hardly a causative element.

[HankB]

Sorry, reality intrudes upon the "video games and teevee have no effect" on kids or whomever.  And there is scant on the upside, it is almost entirely downside influence.

I'm not so certain of that . . . after a day at publik skuul and the "managed" after-school activities and organized playtimes, Junior may be feeling a bit stressed out, and blowing up commies/zombies/robots/whatever in a video game may provide some cathartic release. Being given nothing but "nice" games will only add to the stress, and with no release, Junior may get an early ulcer.

Sure, somewhere there will be a kid who can't separate game from reality, but I expect he's the kind who'd eventually go off the deep end anyway like Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Whitman, or any of a number of other psychos who became mass murderers before video games came out.

[Monkeyleg]

I watch movies on DVD while I have dinner. Over the last several decades I've reached the point where I can watch the back of someone's head being blown off or blood and brain matter being splattered on a wall, and have no problem eating at the same time.

I don't know that I could have done that 30 years ago. The question is whether I became less upset at seeing such things naturally with age, or if I became desensitized to such scenes because of repeated exposure.

[Balog]

Actually, the question is whether or not that would make you more or less prone to violence yourself.

[Gewehr98]

I would angle the discussion towards the perceived value of human life.

In media, be it video games or TV or DVD or cinema, people get their souls knocked loose on an ever-increasing basis.

One would hope the viewers could easily differentiate between that world and meatspace. 

As I see news reports of homicides being committed by younger and younger persons, I have to really wonder.

[cordex]

As I see news reports of homicides being committed by younger and younger persons, I have to really wonder.

From: http://bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=2221
Figure 4. Homicide offending rates by age, 1980-2008
Rate per 100,000 population

Contra III must have really messed kids up.

[Monkeyleg]

Cordex, homicide rates peaked in the early to mid 1990's, and the 18 to 24 group has always been the top demographic for homicides, so that's not surprising. I don't recall historically where 14-17 year-olds have been in terms of homicide.

Actually, the question is whether or not that would make you more or less prone to violence yourself.

I've always had a penchant for violence, but I've kept it in check. I believe that level of violence in me, though kept in check, has increased.

[cordex]

Cordex, homicide rates peaked in the early to mid 1990's, and the 18 to 24 group has always been the top demographic for homicides, so that's not surprising. I don't recall historically where 14-17 year-olds have been in terms of homicide.

I'm pretty sure the homicide rates of the mid-1990's were due to 8 bit NES violence.

LtC Grossman provided an interesting viewpoint on violent video games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMsEuR7dhj4

I am extremely wary of government censorship in any form.  If there are people incapable of distinguishing fantasy and reality, those people need to be held accountable for their actions.

[freakazoid]

I blame Galaga and MTV.

I wonder how high up it was on the left where we can't see.

[Matthew Carberry]

Never interrupt your enemy when they are in the process of making a mistake.

Repubs need to be blandly supportive of "holding hearings" but express 1st Amendment concerns. Make sure it is undeniably a prominent Dem show. Evoke Tipper.

Turn the young against the nannies.

[Perd Hapley]

Never interrupt your enemy when they are in the process of making a mistake.

Repubs need to be blandly supportive of "holding hearings" but express 1st Amendment concerns. Make sure it is undeniably a prominent Dem show. Evoke Tipper.

Turn the young against the nannies.

Likes this.

[Jamisjockey]

Never interrupt your enemy when they are in the process of making a mistake.

Repubs need to be blandly supportive of "holding hearings" but express 1st Amendment concerns. Make sure it is undeniably a prominent Dem show. Evoke Tipper.

Turn the young against the nannies.

Instead, the party of fail will seize the opportunity to push moral superior agenda on violence in society down our throats.

[Perd Hapley]

Maybe we should be happy about this. Diane Feinstein, unable to ban real guns, is reduced to banning digital ones. 

[slingshot]

Feinstein is not going to do anything concerning video games.

[BlueStarLizzard]

I watch movies on DVD while I have dinner. Over the last several decades I've reached the point where I can watch the back of someone's head being blown off or blood and brain matter being splattered on a wall, and have no problem eating at the same time.

I don't know that I could have done that 30 years ago. The question is whether I became less upset at seeing such things naturally with age, or if I became desensitized to such scenes because of repeated exposure.

*grin* reminds me of the time I was watching From Hell and during the scene where the Ripper is dismembering some Victorian prostitues, I realized that it was kind of messed up that I was happily munching on a tbone steak while watching blood streaming across the tv screen.

However, due to the fact that I am a very well adjusted person (the peanut gallery should just that one slide) I can recognize the diffrence between fiction and reality and comprehend that reactions to events depicted in a movie are drastically diffrent then similar events in real life.
The movie Rampage didn't make me want to go shoot up the town anymore then playing Simpson's RoadRage made me want to drive reclessly or listining to Pearl Jams "Jermey" made me want to kill my school mates or commit suicide.

Human culture is influanced by art (high and low), that is an unescapable fact. However, human beings are entirely capible of understanding the diffrence between real life and art.
Any problem stemming from such influances must be addressed culturally, not politically.
Some quality parenting might be a start...