Tag: VIOLENCE

Share If you're still blaming 'Duck Hunt' for the fact that your kid grew up to be a serial killer, wait till you get a load of the bloodthirsty games Nickelodeon is now marketing to today's generation of miscreants. The Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood has awarded Nickelodeon's AddictingGames.com with the dubious title of 'worst toy of the year,' after tallying nearly 5,000 ...

Augmented reality technology is really fantastic. Really! But, like anything else, it has potential for abuse, misuse, and simple wrongheadedness. In both Amsterdam and Rotterdam, the Dutch government has installed AR billboards intended to combat an apparently pervasive problem; public workers, in the course of their regular duties, are routinely faced with violence and aggression from ...

Before he began his disastrous gubernatorial term in Sacramento, Arnold Schwarzenegger shot to international stardom on the strength of a Hollywood career defined by a violent onscreen persona. Today, though, Schwarzenegger finds himself staunchly defending a piece of California legislation aimed at limiting the spread of violent media, and the debate has now made it all the way to the Supreme ...

Studies linking violence and video games are a dime a dozen, but, according to The Washington Post, Iowa State University psychologist Craig Anderson claims that playing violent games definitively leads to violent thought and action. Set to be published in the American Psychological Association's (APA) March journal, his research claims that data from previous studies, of 130,000 people total, ...

It's one thing to vent your frustration with a video game by hurling a controller against the wall. Heck, even we've done that. But it's another thing entirely to do so by performing an act of violence. According to Reuters, Italian father Fabrizio R. (no last name given) became the target of such an act last weekend after he'd offered his 16-year-old son Mario advice on how to improve his ...

You can learn a lot in college. Apparently, though, courses in common sense and decency aren't offered at the all-male St. Paul's College at the University of Sydney in Australia. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, authorities and experts are in an uproar over a highly offensive Facebook group called "Define Statutory," which was created by a number of current and former students. The ...

Normally, we're of the type who would defend the youth of America. Sure, they're not the brightest crayons in the box, but we think, at heart, they're generally well intentioned. But we're done defending them after hearing about 15-year-old Florida boy Matthew Bent and his four hoodlum friends, who set fire to classmate Michael Brewer this past Monday. The incident unfolded thanks to the $40 ...

Finally, the 'Mortal Kombat' franchise is revamping its reputation as the originator of the 'fatality,' bringing back its tradition of splattered blood and graphic gore in the new, unnamed 'MK9.' G4TV.com reports that the franchise is heading back to what it does best: making 'M'-rated video games and giving players the best fatalities and end moves. Back in 1992 when it was introduced to ...

Heads up to all you young gamers out there -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown is taking his anti-video game crusade all the way to the United States Supreme Court. On Wednesday, Mr. Brown petitioned the nation's highest court to uphold a proposed California state law banning the sale or rental of violent games to children. According to the LA Times, a federal district court shot down the ...

Nineteen-year-old Codey R. Hawks of Parma, Ohio has been arrested for allegedly raping a 12-year-old boy after meeting him via Xbox online live. On January 15, according to Cleveland's NBC affiliate, Hawks allegedly traveled to the boy's residence in Michigan, staying there with him for some time. Having been arrested Monday and charged with rape and sexual imposition, Hawks is currently being ...

In a newly published study, researchers at Texas A&M claim that playing violent video games has no correlation to school shootings, we learned today from Bit-Tech and GamePolitics. Professor and lead researcher Christopher Ferguson found the subject worthy of interrogation due to the popular trend of blaming violent video games for incidents such as the Columbine High School shooting. ...

In one of the more disturbing examples of police brutality in recent memory, a subway officer in Oakland, CA shot and killed a young man at point-blank range on New Year's day, in a situation where there was clearly no imminent threat to the officer's life. How can we say "clearly", you ask? Because three separate onlookers caught the incident on video, using mobile phones and cameras. The ...

Growing up as a teenager can be hard. At a time when youths are still discovering themselves and seeking acceptance from their peers (or strangers), what does one do? Let it all out on MySpace, of course. According to a study published in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 54-percent of the 500 MySpace profiles studied mentioned sex, alcohol, and violence on ...

The whole "violence in videogames" debate just got a bit more lively, thanks to a new study in the journal Pediatrics claiming to link violent games and increased aggression. Professor Craig Anderson, who teaches psychology at Iowa State University and runs its Center for the Study of Violence, told PC World, "We now have conclusive evidence that playing video games has harmful effects on ...

Everyone today is quick to blame video games for their effects on the mentalities of today's kids. But, in all this focus on the corrupting powers of gaming, people seem to have forgotten about the thing that was supposed to have twisted the minds of the last few generations of kids: movies. Some researchers haven't forgotten, though, and have presented findings showing that mild but mean movies ...