Brutal games do something to the child's soul

With a machine gun at the ready, the 12-year-old enters the run-down factory premises, where a pack of zombies is waiting. He starts by fuelling the mob with hand grenades and Molotov cocktails, then opens fire. In the end, he rams his combat knife into the head of the last opponent with an unsavoury sound.

If we look over our child's shoulder while they are playing such a computer game, it is almost impossible for us to stay relaxed. We find it horrible and can't help it. What is particularly worrying is that our child is actively at the controls and casually wielding a variety of weapons.
Yes, there is a right to be concerned. Yes, parents are allowed to forbid their children from playing such games. They just need to know why.

When children immerse themselves in action games
they are not interested in killing. It's about playing. First-person shooters do not automatically turn gamers into spree killers.

Aggressive action games often have a disturbing effect, especially on people who do not play them. Many parents fear that their own child will become brutalised and blunted when it comes to violence.

One sure sign of this seems to be the aggression that arises in players like smoke from a fire. Students often tell me that they sometimes throw the controller around in anger in the middle of a game. One of them even threw it out of the window.

Looking for ways to let off steam

The game may be the trigger for such eruptions, but the motive has a different origin: it is well known that self-regulation only works to a limited extent during adolescence and that a certain potential for aggression lies dormant in every child and adolescent - even without video games. After all, in their everyday lives, at school, with friends or at home, they repeatedly experience situations that demonstrate their own powerlessness. This is why they are looking for effective ways to let off steam.

If you ask children and young people why they like playing shooters, they often tell you that they want to «let out their frustration». However, this only works to a limited extent, as failure in the game always leads to new disappointments. We experience a similarly misunderstood phenomenon with adults who watch television to «relax». The opposite is usually the case.

From homicidal inhibition to killing sprees?

Studies on the question of whether video games increase aggression or not are highly contradictory and do not help us in our educational work. The fact is that almost any game can make you angry - if you lose.

Nevertheless, it is repeatedly claimed that aggressive games reduce the player's inhibition to kill. This theory originates from the military sector. According to studies, many soldiers in combat have not fired at the enemy, but into the air or not at all. This is why simulation games are actually used in this environment to reduce the inhibition to kill.

The only difference is that these games are used with a specific purpose. However, children and young people - and many adults too - play games purely to pass the time, without an overriding agenda. I also don't believe in the platitude that first-person shooters automatically turn gamers into spree killers. At the same time, however, I am against any trivialisation of the issue of violence by the gamer faction.

Everything half as wild?

It's like playing a game of «hurry up and wait», according to this group. It's all about hitting and not getting hit. Others are of the opinion that Super Mario jumping on a mushroom is also brutal. In my opinion, these relativising arguments come from the Stone Age of gaming, when death in a game was still synonymous with «game over» on an arcade machine. Only the insertion of a new coin brought the character back to life.

Today, however, children have access to games with extremely realistic, film-like depictions of war and dystopian worlds through mobile devices and consoles. Personally, I have nothing against first-person shooters and action games. But this offer is intended for adults. However, that is no reason for children and young people not to play them.

How children see violent games

This is difficult for parents to understand, but children and young people see the topic of violence with completely different eyes. When they dive deep into action games, they are not interested in killing, but in playing. For example, no teenager says, «Mum, can I go kill for two hours after I've done my homework?» They don't even think like that. They want to compete with other players, reach the goal and save the world.

Of course, the games that are not made for their age are particularly appealing to them. They enjoy playing them because they are convinced that they «have the necessary maturity for it», as the pupils themselves put it to me. It's similar to a classic horror film: it's all about the so-called fear factor. How much tension and horror can I take? This is tricky, because if the limit of endurance is only minimally exceeded, it is already too late. Anxiety, nightmares or insomnia can be the result. Pupils then tell me that they hear scary noises in the flat at night after playing because their nerves are so frayed. «If I forbid my child to play a game,» parents tell me resignedly, «he goes to his friends and plays there.» So what? Is that a reason not to take a stand?

I say it very clearly: brutal games have no place in the hands of children. For example, if I believe that war should be cruel and not a game, then I communicate this attitude and ban these games. Always with arguments and not out of principle. And let's not forget: even if I am convinced that young players can clearly distinguish between violence in games and real violence, I still see no reason to sound the all-clear. Brutal games do something to a child's soul and we have to protect it.

Computer games and violence

• Achten Sie auf die Altersangaben der Hersteller.
• Bei Unsicherheit den Namen des Spiels googeln.
• Bei diesem Thema gibt es starken Gruppendruck – wie sehen das die Eltern der anderen?
• Stillschweigende Akzeptanz von Gewaltspielen ist bequem, aber falsch.
• Haltung zeigen, wenn Sie Gewalt als Spiel ablehnen.
• Erklären Sie Ihrem Kind Ihre Haltung mit Argumenten.
• Sprechen Sie mit Ihren Kindern darüber, was ihnen Angst macht.

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