Real threat of the virtual world

RANCHI: After worldwide web, television and movies, video games are introducing children to the darker side of human civilization.
Distinct behavioral changes are often seen in children who are addicted to video games. This is more apparent in cases where the child is into war games or others with violent content.
Call of Duty, Counter Strike, Manhunt, Resident Evil 5, God of War and Mad World are some popular video games that top the most-violent-list.Use of guns and swords to aid terrorism on screen often affects children deeply.
So much so, that these children frequently get into fights or arguments with parents, say experts who believe that the urban satellite family model is also fuelling this trend. Prabhat Kumar, a sociologist, said, "Apartment culture and fast life are prime reasons why children are getting addicted to violent video games." Some sociologists say lack of clear parental guidance is a vital factor too.
Poonam Anand, a homemaker, said, "Children often get addicted to video games and demand weapons used in them. Personality changes in children who play violent video games are quite apparent." Another homemaker, Santosh Khaitan, also believes that children often show negligence and disobedience towards their parents and elders after playing such games.
"I come across at least four to five cases daily where parents complain about their child being violent and getting into unnecessary fights with friends at school," said child psychiatrist Usha Narsaria.
Parents of a 12 year old boy, studying in a reputed English medium school in the city, suddenly realized that, of late, very minute things were triggering their son's temper. He beat up his mother whenever she stopped him from playing video games. He behaved rudely with friends and even threw stones at them once. Seema Singh, the boy's mother said, "He used to play violent games on computer when he was very young. Now he has become addicted to them. He emulates the characters and often tries action moves (shown on screen) on me and his sister."
Besides, having a video game has also become a status symbol for many people in the society that costs between Rs 1,000 -2000. That apart, these games leave a huge impact on child's mental growth which are the prime reason why the graph of crime is increasing in the society.
Ranjana Kumari, member of State Commission for Protection of Child rights (SCPCR), adds to the list of disadvantages of playing video games by saying that they hamper creativity in children.
As Jim Morrison once said, "Violence isn't always evil. What's evil is the infatuation with violence."
Original
Worldwide web, television blitzkrieg and movies not enough to introduce children to the darker side of human civilization. An addition to the list is video games, another marvel of technology that is ever evolving for innovative entertainment.
In many cases, distinct behavioral changes in children, who are addicted to video games, have been noticed. This is more apparent in cases where the child is into war games or those with violent content.
Use of guns and swords and terrorism on screen often affect a child deeply. So much so that these children frequently get into fights or argument with parents, say experts who belief that the urban satellite family model is fuelling this trend.
Prabhat Kumar,a sociologist, said, "Apartment culture and fast life are two prime reasons why children are getting addicted to violent video games."
Manhunt, Resident Evil 5, Grand Theft Auto, God of War II and Mad World are some of the popular games and are on the lust of most violent games.
"I come across at least four to five cases daily where parents complain about the child being violent and getting into unnecessary fights with friends at school," said child psychiatrist Usha Narsaria.
Parents of a 12-year-old boy of a reputed English medium school in the city suddenly realized that of late, very minute things were triggering their son's temper.
He often beat up his mother whenever she stopped him from playing the games on his father's laptop. He also behaved rudely with friends and threw stones at them.
Seema Singh, the boy's mother and a resident of Ashok Nagar, said, "He used to play violent games on computer when he was very small and now he has become addicted to these. He emulates the characters and tries the action moves, shown on screen, on me and his sister."
Sociologists say lack of clear parental guidance is a vital factor why children are getting drawn to the virtual world.
Besides, having a video game has also become a status symbol for many people in the society that costs between Rs 1,000 -2000. That apart, these games leave a huge impact on child's mental growth which are the prime reason why the graph of crime is increasing in the society.
Ranjana Kumari, member of State Commission for Protection of Child rights (SCPCR)said, "Creativity of children is getting hampered due to the easy availability of these video games in the market."
Poonam Anand, a homemaker, said, "Often children indulge in video games become addicted to them and hence they demand weapons that they see in the games like swords and guns. We can see personality changes in children who play violent video games.
Santosh Kahitan, another homemaker who lives in Kishore Ganj said, "Video games highly changes the bahaviour of children.before Playing video games children used to obey children but after they start playing games they show negligence and disobedience towards their parents and elders.
Violence, is, in fact, "not always evil. What's evil is the infatuation with violence."