Whenever there is a great tragedy as the D.C. Navy Base shooting this past week, everyone begins to search for answers. The big question that we heard this week was WHY did Aaron Alexis, someone whom to many seemed like an ordinary person, would open fire to kill 12 people (seemingly randomly) before being willing to die himself in an all or nothing gun fight with the police. While information is still coming out in this story, there is one piece of information I found particularly interesting. Aaron Alexis was an avid video game player. While I am not saying this was the cause of his decision to kill so many people, I do think there is a link between the increased violence in video games (and movies) and how kids these days relate to death and killing. While I would never suggest to not allow your kids to play these games (I grew up on Resident Evil and Final Fantasy II), I do think that it is the parents' job to decide at what age it is appropriate for their kids to play such games and to make sure they understand ALL the content of the game to decrease the chances of their child becoming another enigma of violence.
While, admittedly, Aaron Alexis broke the psychological profile that I have recently begun to create of these most senseless mass murderers, i.e. John Holmes (Aurora), Adam Lanza (Newtown), and even back as far as Erik Harris and Dylan Klebold (Columbine). At the time of their attacks, they all shared two things in common: 1. They were all under 25 years of age (24, 20, and 18/17, respectively) and they all were all avid gamers. This is not even mentioning Anders Breivik (the 33 year old Norwegian who gunned down 69 people at a political youth camp on the island of Utoya in 2011), who admitted that he used Call of Duty to practice for the killings.
I believe this shows a clear connection between kids who play violent video games and watch violent movies at a young age and these senseless murders throughout the world. What I feel occurs is that parents allow their kids to play these games at an age in which they are not quite mentally capable of completely understanding the severity of what they are playing and they associate the violence of the game with what is acceptable in real life. Many of these games are rated PG-13 or M-17 and parents still tend to ignore these ratings because the video game industry puts in certain parental guidance codes that prevent the game from cursing or showing explicit blood in all scenes. What this doesn't stop, however, is the horrific violence of killing or beating up individuals senselessly. Also, while many parents may think their kids are adhering to these types of rules, many are disengaging this parental control as soon as possible.
To combat this as a parent and ensure that your child doesn't end up as another "unexplained tragedy," parents have basically two choices. 1. Don't buy your kids these violent video games at all. There are a number of sports, fantasy, and educational games that could keep your kid occupied in his/her free time or, better yet, help them discover the joy of reading and increase their intelligence and curiosity rather than killing it with a mindless game. or 2. Have SUPER strict supervision on every game your kids plays to make sure there is nothing in it that could create a negative impact on him/her. Before allowing your kid to play any game, you should read about it, ask around to other parents, and even play the game yourself to ensure there is nothing that you don't want your kid to see, or at least, you are prepared to discuss with him/her to make sure they understand what is occurring and how it relates to the real world.
While there are many who will read this and think this is baloney, I don't think the dead 8-year-old girl, accused of being killed by her 12 year old brother, would think so (Hear about it here), and while it has not been proven that he did it, I would be willing to wager that if he did, he played/watched a significant amount of violent video games or movies at a young age. How else would someone so young be able to do something so deadly and evil? Sometimes the most obvious answer is the one people refuse to believe.
Our world is one in which violence sells. Grand Theft Auto 5 just broke the $1 billion in sales mark in ONLY THREE DAYS. While it is rated M17 (mature), I would guarantee that half of those sales were to kids well under 17, many of them purchased by their parents. Parents, you have a commitment to your child to give them the best environment possible to encourage their intellectual stimulation and growth for the strong creation of the neurotic synapses to be a great analytical thinker. By allowing your kid to spend their time playing video games all day, you are no better than the parent who doesn't have the ability to discipline their child's eating habit so they don't grow up overweight. The major problem with this is that some kids reach a certain point in which it's TOO hard for them to course correct. If your kid falls into any of the information above, I pray it is not too late for them...and us.
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.
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