Question: A bit unrelated but what are your views on the subject of Violent Video Games causing a more violent mindset in children (baring in mind there has been a recent long-term study published finding a zero link)

Sarah Ashwood answered on 13 Nov 2014:

I wouldn’t necessarily try and blame violence in video games for any sort of violent mindset in children.
Technology has advanced so much recently that the way we grow up is entirely different to how it was 20 or even just 10 years ago. Computers are cheaper and hence more widely available. Mobile phones are everywhere – I remember being at school and not having one until my GCSE’s.
You can connect to the internet anywhere and hence play video-games online anywhere. So on the whole more young people are using video games. However I would say that as we are so exposed to technology at a younger age, it is unlikely that most people won’t see the gap between hurting someone in a game and actually hurting someone in real life.

The problem is mental illness, which is not particularly well understood. People are much more likely to say “I blame the video games” than say that the child doesn’t understand the difference between right and wrong, and that can be an issue with the way they think in general. It isn’t a bad thing, they just need more attention to explain to them the morals of what they are doing. People don’t seem to realise that mental illness is the same as any sort of disease. That it is treatable in the same way as any other disease, and it is just as common as any other disease.