Send us your comments >> Susan Ottwell, Mizpeh Ramon: Long before they begin playing video games, children spend hours in front of the television, where either it is depicted as hilariously funny to blow up the "bad guys" whether Elmer Fudd, Coyote, or the Decepticons. Children and teens are depicted as the "good guys", adults are either ineffective or the "bad guys", and extreme violence is the method used to solve all the world's problems. Is it any surprise then that children will take that lesson into the school and the street, using the same violence they have watched since infancy to solve their own perceived problems, overcome their own "bad guys" and become heroes in their own eyes and those of their friends? Or is it a surprise that they should crave ever-more violent video games as they grow older?
More about: | Eden Natan-Zada, University of Haifa, Yona Metzger, Kfar Saba |