RISE OF THE MACHINES

Apparently, normal and loving parents would not like to see their child grow into a villain. As sensible parents, they are expected to screen the children from any harmful environment that might indirectly give rise to aggression, anxiety, suspiciousness, and selfishness.

Nevertheless, we often can see how parents persistently offer their children playing the shooting games. Imagine the following situation at an entertainment center. Apart from numerous gaming devices, there is a playground for children, center for the development of their creative abilities and various harmless board games.

A boy persistently pulls his father by the sleeve: “Dad, I want to paint. Look, there are also construction kits and kinetic sand.”

“You can paint at home. We’d better shoot, huh?” replies dad.

“But we don’t have so many colors and plaster shapes at home.”

“Son, I did not take you here for painting. And I really don’t want to wait until you finish painting.”

I have heard this conversation unintentionally. The conversation between a son, who wants to paint, albeit surrounded by numerous gaming machines, and his father, who should seemingly be happy by his son's motivation to paint despite so many temptations around them. But the father fails to make an appropriate decision in favor of the son’s present and future.

Illusion of happiness

Much has been written about the harm of gaming machines and computer games promoting violence. When they just appeared in our lives, many could not even guess the implications. Given the abundance of information and expert warnings about the phenomenon of game addiction today, a persistent desire of parents to amuse their children with this kind of entertainment seems very strange and illogical. One can find many gaming machines promoting violence at children’s playgrounds. Interestingly, the entertainment centers often promote their products under seemingly harmless titles including the words such as “happiness”, “joy”, and “for children's entertainment”, which falsely make a child to believe that he cannot be happy without killing or hitting some monsters.

Luckily, not all the parents prefer such pastime for their children. The mother of seven-year-old Muhammed, Sara-khanim, told us that she has always tried to shield her son from anything that could provoke aggression in his mind. She does not allow him to watch movies and cartoons with the elements of violence, and explains him why she does the same regarding some gaming machines too. “I really cannot understand why some shooting games openly offer killing animals. Sort of a hunting experience, a safari. After all, there are many organizations fighting against the extinction of endangered species and trying to preserve the wild life. Where is the logic? On the one hand, they promote protection, while at the same time they insist on killing the animals. And as soon as they wish to earn money, they find the easiest way: an offer to kill. But if our children kill the animals in the virtual world today, they will do the same in real life tomorrow,” says Sara. Many parents often notice the children saying “I was killed” and so on while playing. The computer and gaming industry is moving ahead in huge steps. Virtual murders and destruction in games are getting more realistic.

Developers of hardware and computer applications know well that games affect children and impose some kind of restrictions on them such as the warnings on bloody content but that does not change much. In many countries, there have been several court hearings on the banning of certain computer games such as the Counter Strike (first-person shooter, where terrorists are fighting against the law enforcement agents). But the prohibitions do not prevent developers from releasing new hits every year.

Killing simulators

One can argue that we did the same when we were children playing with “war toys”. That is true. But we were not tempted by such a monster as enticing virtual reality, which becomes more real every year. It is enough to read the description of new computer games. The developers claim that their game has become closer to reality, the level of which is even estimated by such parameters as realism, graphics, and soundtrack. The more realistic the game, the more points the gamer earns during the gameplay. Developers take into account everything - sound, physics, and graphic content. This is done to maintain an even greater effect of presence. In this case, each game is given a description of the plot and the goal: where, how, when and whom to kill.

According to a child psychologist Nargiz Hashimzadeh, considering the harmful effects of violent games on psyche, they all should specify age limits. By the way, such a censorship practice is used in many countries of Europe. “Generally speaking, it is undesirable to install such gaming machines at entertainment centers for the children, as there are sensitive children who have fears and anxiety. This transfers their minds from the virtual world into the real one. A child, who has yet to develop as an individual with character, believes that there is nothing unusual in killing animals or people. This is the negative impact of such games,” says Hashimzadeh.

Adults are different. According to the expert, similar gameplay actions relieve stress. In such games, adults unleash the aggression compiled during the day. “I would even advise adults to play such games when they failed to do something at work, at home and want to scream. But… Regular personification of some psychopathic personalities during a gameplay gradually shapes a gambler inside of us. Sort of a peculiar neurosis of compulsive states of mind. The measure is important here. Regular gameplay is harmful anyway. There are facts when after such games the maniacs shot people. For example, it is well known that Anders Behring Breivik, a person who organized the explosion at one of the centers in Oslo and attacked the youth camp of the ruling Norwegian Labor Party in 2011, killing 77 people and injuring 151, was playing a game with elements of violence before his odious act of terror. So, the most important thing here is knowing your measure and controlling your mind.” Why do we often hear about the teenagers killing people at schools in different countries? Just because the “shooters” allow the killing psychologically acceptable. “There are a number of computer programs for the military (also known as the “shooters”), which teach you how to kill the enemy. The Second World War showed that American soldiers, who could hit the targets during military exercises, have failed to do so with the real enemy, they fired only at targets, not the living people. So, the military started instilling these skills thanks to computer simulators. Americans have concluded that the methods used for military training should be freely promoted among the children's as well,” says our expert.

What should parents do? Dr. Hashimzadeh recommends instilling love for animals from the childhood, telling the children good stories about animals and people to shape the feelings such as compassion, empathy to people and children, especially to animals. Then they will never wish to kill either the animals or people.

“Dear parents, if you do not screen your child from the harmful influence of shooting games and gaming devices, the odds are that he or she will get addicted to roulette or gaming machines at a later age. The most significant danger posed by computer games is addiction. This is a real shift of the consciousness, which will require assistance of a qualified doctor,” warns Hashimzadeh.

That is the reality! There are so many shooting games and insensitive gaming machines advertising virtual violence that our reality may well be called ‘the era of the rising machines’. But if we do not teach our children how to feel and perceive the surrounding reality with all its advantages and disadvantages while protecting them from the virtual world, they will gradually turn into the same machines.