Violent kids? Blame that computer game

mumbai: does your ten-year-old see himself as a thoroughbred pacman? or your teenaged daughter consider herself the best tomb raider around? are you, perhaps, a champion prince? maybe, then, it's time for you to heed to a research study made public recently. according to the findings, first reported in the london-based observer, hightech maps of the mind show that computer games are damaging brain development and could lead children being unable to control violent behaviour.'' in effect, this means that virtual games seem to be dumbing down gen x and predisposing them to violence.scientists at japan's tohoku university, led by ryuta kawashima, say they have found evidence that computer games stimulate those parts of the brain devoted to vision and movement, but do not aid the development of other important areas. the most worrying aspect,however, is that children who spend hours on these games could be endangering the development of their frontal lobes, which play a crucial role in controlling violent-laden behaviour and developing emotional intelligence. (incidentally, whenever one stops oneself from doing something undesirable, it is the frontal lobe which enables self-control.) the research team used sophisticated technologies to measure the brain activity in hundreds of teenagers playing nintendo, one of the most popular gaming consoles around. these findings were then compared with the brain scans of other students doing a simple arithmetic exercise. these implications are very serious for a violence-laden society and these students will be doing more and more bad things if they are playing ( c o m p u t e r ) games and not doing other things like reading aloud or learning arithmetic,'' mr kawahima said. concurs harish shetty, a social psychiatrist, computer games lead to emotional and cognitive exhaustion. the result is that children, exposed to too much gaming, are unable to concentrate on simple tasks or grasp basic concepts. in the worst case, they may not even maintain healthy peer relationships in their later life. they could get irritated quickly and become prone to violence easily.'' another adverse effect of gaming is what behavioural experts call the 'loner effect'. the main problem with audio-visual gaming is that young gamers gradually begin to substitute their near and dear ones with game characters,'' says dr shetty.this is why care should be taken, so that virtual characters like lara croft don't turn out to be substitutes for real-life friends.'' tto game or not to game, page 9 'care should be taken so that virtual characters like lara croft (played by angelina jolie) don't turn out to be substitutes for real-life friends,' warn experts.