Few of our homes today seem free of PC video games and game consoles. They have spread among kids and teens, boys and girls alike. Thanks to the black market, cheaply available stolen copies of these games have proliferated.
The problem with so many of these games is that they focus on violence and sexual prurience. Murder, assault, bombing, overt criminal behavior and even the objectification of women seem to be predominant and romanticized characteristics in these games.
Some of the games are so focused on the idea of violence that the main objective itself seems to be simply for the player to acquiring new and more violent ways of killing and creating mayhem: Main characters in the predominantly popular so-called “shooter games” might begin in some predicament with a lowly pistol, and then shoot and kill his way toward automatic rifles, high-caliber machine guns, rocket launchers, explosives, etc., until, finally, the player has completed a rat’s maze of computer graphics, and his virtual reward awaits him.
These games mount to little more than a hamster wheel of virtual violence; instead of a rodent uselessly running inside a plastic wheel, it’s a human child wasting time equivalently, but with the added “bonus” of becoming slowly de-sensitized to violent and sexual stimulation.
Undoubtedly, having young children and teenagers immersing themselves into these kind of games have definite consequences. It influences the development of their beliefs, health and social behaviors into adulthood.
Studies have shown that children that spend a great deal of time playing such games are more likely to engage in violent behavior as young adults, as much as 22 percent more likely.
A Stanford University study concluded that reducing a child’s consumption of television programming and computer games by seven hours per week cuts in half the likelihood that a youngster would grow up to become verbally abusive, and make them 40 percent less likely to be physically abusive.
These games may also affect moral behavior. An immensely popular game serial, “Grand Theft Auto,” romanticizes the life of a US inner-city crook, and portrays women as sex objects.
The impact of constant addiction-like of games like this may encourage teens to engage not only in criminal activity, but also lure them toward pornography and prostitution, or at least engender among boys the lustful idea that girls are little more than scantily clad sex toys that reward violent and/or criminal behavior. As if Hollywood isn’t enough!
An urgent logical question comes to mind: What should be the Ministry of Culture and Information’s role in this issue? Are there standards? Is there enforcement?
Until these questions are rectified, parents must act as the regulators. I should point out that most of these games are rated in much the same way movies are rated: for language, violence and content. However, because these games are rated by Western standards, we Saudis cannot rely on this system alone, especially in relation to the depiction of women, which is almost universally in the prurient sense, even when women are cast as main characters and heroines, such as in the “Tomb Raider” series.
In the end, this type of entertainment that occupies so much of the time of our children must be given the appropriate amount of attention by the government. Specified standards and regulations must be identified to allow these games into the country in accordance to our Islamic and cultural values.
I believe that the Ministry of Islamic Affairs and the Committee for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice must cooperate with the Ministry of Commerce and the media to support this idea.
