Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Video game and cartoons used to shock school children about violence | Education | The Guardian

This is the stupidest thing I've heard in a while (outside of a teabagger rally, anyway). Exposing kids to violent images in an effort to keep them from becoming desensitized is completely pointless. First it assumes that playing violent video games when you're a teen will desensitize you to actual violence - which it doesn't. There hasn't been a study I've heard of that suggests a causal link between game violence and real violence. Second, even if it did, where are they getting the idea that showing them stills will prevent desensitization? My cousin in the marine corps told me that part of their training was to watch slide-shows and videos of bodies and battle scenes, specifically so they would become desensitized. This is essentially the same plan the US government used to get kids to "just say no," to drugs in the 1980's. Show them the drugs, teach the street names and they won't be interested. No really. It worked wonders, I swear.

Video game and cartoons used to shock school children about violence | Education | The Guardian

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