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catching ’em young? Tiny tots playing a videogame designed like a Home PC

This is a common scene in many homes these days.

Back from school, the kids throw the bag away, grab the joy stick or keyboard and start playing. Homework and examinations don’t worry them at all. Video games is the topic of discussion in classrooms, veering them towards the gaming habit. The new generation kids are exposed to a variety of games. It becomes extremely difficult for parents to keep track of all the games they play. “As they are only playing a game we don’t make a fuss over it. The fact is that I don’t even know what sort of game my son is playing,” says Rakesh, a bank employee. But some comments and reactions from kids, who play violent games, are perilous at times.

Manu, a 17-year-old game maniac, has this to say, “I like ripping the innards out of my enemies, beating people and defrauding cash and properties. I get pleasure out of it.” Does this reflect the boy’s arrogance, or is it just a senseless and immature response? Is gaming allied with a swing in attitudes or responses that may influence kids to act out?

Experts and evidences suggest that this might be so. Studies have their shortcomings, but taken as a whole, they reveal that video games have a heady impact on behaviour and learning. S. Shanthakumar, psychiatrist, explains: “. It is more harmful than exposure to violent movies, which is said to have substantial effects on aggression and violence. .”

Jaisil Jacob, a post graduate in psychology, makes it simple, “Take a close look at a kid watching a fight scene. Within a few minutes he starts pushing, nudging and imitating the actions for a while or so. Violent video games, on a sporadic basis, is unlikely to produce any long term harmful fallouts. But repeated exposure to violent entertainment media of any type is a risk factor for later aggressiveness,” he says. There are opposite views too.

“I don’t think video games inspire people to commit crimes,” says Nebu an IT professional. “If people have a criminal mind, it’s not because they’re getting their ideas from the video games. There’s something much more deeply wrong with the individual. And it’s not the game that’s the problem.” A major casualty of this trend is outdoor games. Kids are no longer in the mood to play cricket or football other than in school. “I doubt whether he can even run a short distance,” feels Varghese, about his son who is always found either in front of the television or the computer.

However, Renny, a school teacher, sees the whole issue from a different angle. “It’s not about indoor or outdoor but the content.

Children spend a great deal of time with violent video games at exactly the age when they should learn healthy ways to relate to others. Parents need to examine the content of video games before allowing their children to use it and that too in a limited way.”

Nishant, a Mumbai-based animator, points to the Columbine High School scene where two students launched an assault on their classmates and teachers, resulting in the death of 13 before turning the guns on themselves. “That incident was said to be inspired from the Shoot’em up video game ‘DOOM’, a game licensed by the U.S. military to train soldiers to kill effectively.”

But if the recent incidents in the country are anything to go by the gun is not too far from an Indian child.

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