News: "Model pupil,15, robbed bank with gun as if he was in a real-life video game"

Beware: I'm a 17-year-old "model pupil" who plays video games, among which you can find violent examples like Resident Evil. Additionally, I'm a fan of manga and anime. According to the world view of the rather experienced (mesured exclusively in time) fraction of our society, especially the ones participating in the politic sector, I'm a highly antisocial potential spree killer with pedophilic traits.

Have you put your stereotype glasses on? Are you ready to read this post with a completely straight tunnel vision? Alright, let's begin.

Source of this masterpiece of journalistic genius

Let's get over this quickly. There was that 15-year-old boy in Liverpool who robbed a bank with a fake gun. His actions were discovered by his mother when she found £2.200 in his room that were surprisingly not part of his pocket money. She informed the police and they brought him to court where he was eventually granted conditional bail. 

The case is crystal meth clear, we have to blame the video games.

The two statements in this piece of news that could create controversal opinions because they glorify video games are:

The judge made no mention of any specific video games.

Nicolas Robinson, associate professor in politics and video games research at the University of Leeds, said: [...] ‘Kids should be protected from certain content. I believe Grand Theft Auto is a very sophisticated satirical piece of work – and most kids under 18 just won’t get the satire. And if you don’t get the satire, it’s actually much more problematic than if you do.’

If I've discovered something playing Resident Evil, it's not my inner aggression, but my predilection for red oriental dresses.

And now seriously. At least it seems that the judge was smart enough to stay focused on the actual topic of the crime which was the robbery rather than any possible background that isn't related to the case at all.

And I completely agree with the statement of the university professor. Of course there is some content kids should be protected from. The day I am a father I won't make my little children play violent games, show them porn videos nor make them read satirical critics.

Why? Because they don't understand this kind of content. They still need to form a sane opinion about certain realities before they are exposed critical topics. And as a father it's my duty to educate them ensuring that they can learn with an objective point of view about these issues. My children will probably one day play violent games, watch porn videos and read satirical critics. But that's not something bad in itself. It would be bad if they weren't able to reflect with a clear mind about their consumption. 

And that is what fails. Either the school environment is not favourable for their growth or the parents don't their job as they should do. Or they suffer brom being bullied by some yobs. Or something else happens. There are thousand different reasons that could cause a young mind to end up breaking bad. 

The reasoning the politicians use is that, since they imitate video games with their crimes, the video games must be the origins of their actions. But what about films? They feature murders, robbery, sex, rapes, drugs... And many children see movies that are not suited their age. Of course, it's easier to attack something that I, as a 60-year-old bald head wearing important-looking suits, don't know. For example video games. Because I'm not in touch with that medium. Because it's too distant. And thus, it must be bad. The perfect scapegoat.

Memo to myself; potential blog posts:

- Codeword: Itoi

- Codeword: Meckern

- Codeword: RE

- Codeword: Bad
- Codeword: Aftermath

And finally, three nice words/terms I've learnt (the last link doesn't direct you to a dictionary but it's a decent and simple definition):

yob

scape goat (in the news' comments)

conditional bail