UK Teachers Remind Us Video Games are Bad

[News Portal]

A teachers conference in the UK has been presented with the ground-breaking idea that video games are bad for children. They warn us that their students, some as young as four or five, have been acting out violent scenes which could only have come from being left unsupervised in their rooms with video games for days on end. Doctors and psychologist are brought in, with the vaguest of 'facts' to back them up, and no references as to which 'specialists' have made the comments. In conclusion, video games are obviously very bad and this reporter definitely never remembers play-murdering the other chldren in the playground before they came along.

Source: The Guardian

Read full article by GON News

[PalZer0]

Really? I thought teachers were supposed to be smarter than this.

[Cyrinno]

Video games have been around for years even before I started playing them around the sega master system era as a 5 year old.

My conclusion is there's been plenty of time to see society as a whole change into this violent mass murdering beast.

yet it hasn't happend.

[Goric]

Alison Sherratt, a teacher at Riddlesden St Mary's Church of England primary school in Keighley, West Yorkshire, said her four- and five-year-old pupils spend their breaks pretending to "throw themselves out of the window of the play car in slow motion" and act out blood "spurting from their bodies".

Who’s to say they didn’t see this in a movie or on TV and wanted to act it out??? Doesn’t always have to be from games.

They only seem to focus on the violent games too, what about the good side, love, courage, helping others??? I'm sure many kids act this stuff out too, its just not taken notice of.

[Breakin]

they must play alot of video games over in uganda

[LittleJohn47]

Suppose we generously assume that Alison Sherratt (a teacher) is correct in her following statement.

"Obesity, social exclusion, loneliness, physical fitness, sedentary solitary lives – these are all descriptions of children who are already hooked to games … Sadly there is a notable correlation between the children who admit to playing games and those who come to school really tired, [...]"

It would seem that Jessica Shepherd (the author) has forgotten the difference between correlation and causation. Are games causing children to become socially reclusive, or are socially reclusive children more interested in games? Or is there a third factor, perhaps socio-economics? Does having richer parents make children more socially reclusive and more interested in games?

Clearly this is a job for Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner of Freakonomics fame (or indeed a great deal of people who have been properly educated), and not the psychologists refered to in the following quotation who, I can only assume from Ms. Shepherd's omission of any kind of referencing or even naming, are completely non-existent.

Psychologists have expressed concerns that playing some games make children more aggressive.

This is complete rubbish.

[wyver]

oh you guys, isn't this just so much fun seeing people grasping at anything to make something they don't "like" shown up as "evil" or "destroying children"
I remember the old days back in school we use to play British bulldogs and have fights with other rival schools and at an even younger age playing cops and robbers or cowboy and indians hell I even remember playing a came we called "run away kids" I don't remember much of it besides the fact that we played as run away kids and the cops wanted to kill us..

fact is kids will act out violence no matter what you do. I think as a kid it was TV and metal / hard rock music that made kids violent acting out satanic murder scenes, only today THEY blame video games.. what fad or popular past time will they blame next time, I'm just waiting for kids to start play with yo-yo's and gain and hearing that cry from some overbearing over protective (christian) mother saying "ooo, wont somebody thing of the children!!"

[AzzA82]

Jeez , How many times do did you used to see kids smacking each other playing "Power Rangers" and what ever they play/watch nowdays.

[Tas]

Complete bollox, As someone who grew up in North London of the 70's an early 80s Schools in UK are a moronic mix of ineptitude an apathy today.

(part teachers part students in equal measure).

Games have nothin to do with kids actin out, its because the teachers in UK today are too **** scared to discipline kids.

I hate to sound like an old fart here, but in 70's if a kid talked in class he got a smack round earole.
If a kid back chatted or kicked up a fuss in class he was made to put his fingers over edge of desk an teacher would give him 6 belt's across knuckles with edge of ruler.
If a kid kicked off in class... He was sent to the head, an given 6 of cane across arse. Then he had to say thank you sir as he left.
Not to mention if the teachers didn't get you the prefects did, an they were a sadistic bunch of twats (to put it mildly) at best of time's.

Bring back discipline in the classroom an most of this **** would slowly stop.

(waits for the howls of SHAME SHAME!! an calls for my banning by the bleeding heart liberal hanky wringers that infest society today).

[Tas]

oh you guys, isn't this just so much fun seeing people grasping at anything to make something they don't "like" shown up as "evil" or "destroying children"
I remember the old days back in school we use to play British bulldogs and have fights with other rival schools and at an even younger age playing cops and robbers or cowboy and indians hell I even remember playing a came we called "run away kids" I don't remember much of it besides the fact that we played as run away kids and the cops wanted to kill us..

fact is kids will act out violence no matter what you do. I think as a kid it was TV and metal / hard rock music that made kids violent acting out satanic murder scenes, only today THEY blame video games.. what fad or popular past time will they blame next time, I'm just waiting for kids to start play with yo-yo's and gain and hearing that cry from some overbearing over protective (christian) mother saying "ooo, wont somebody thing of the children!!"

Same ere mate, British bulldog allowed us to get our feuds sorted, we broke a few noses, an gave each other black eyes an it was sorted. now they are too scared to let em climb a tree or call em naughty in case you dent their creativity LOL, no wonder the little **** are so soft an act out.

edit
You know they banned British bulldog in UK in 85 or something calling it a "brutal sport" better relegated to the past an forgotten"....
Hell I can remember comin home with a torn shirt, an a black eye an dad would just say "I hope you won" now dont do it again". Mum would freak out an run round like a crazy person, but it taught us to stand up for ourselves, an harden up.

[IvanTSR]

^ hear hear

[Hotblack]

So what are they going to do about it anyway??

[InAUGral]

I remember at primary school lots of kids used to act out Pokemon or any other kind of kids show now video games even though they virtually all played some form of video game whether it be a gameboy pokemon game or Conker N64 games.

[vcatkiller]

Yeah I remember my cousin getting in all sorts of bother acting out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The fact is, children are children and will imitate anything they see, whether it's TV, comics, or dare I say it computer games. How does this suddenly make computer games evil when everything else is still fine?

[iambeanie]

Psychologists have expressed concerns that playing some games make children more aggressive.

This is complete rubbish.

I'll cut the fingers off of anyone who says otherwise!