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Article - Gamer kids go to war zone

itsStackieitsStackie member
edited August 2014 in June 2013 Moms
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/08/12/carl-magnus-helgegren-swedish-dad_n_5672143.html

I heard about this on the radio.  Let's discuss. 

Here is a bit of it:

"When I went out to the Middle East I thought I had a pretty good idea of what the war was. But I had absolutely no idea, I was naive. It was only when I was being shot at with gas canisters that I realised how much I had misunderstood."

Helgegren, who said he has no issue with violent video games - rather that parents bare a responsibility to educate their children - said he did not want his boys to "mindlessly" play the video games without understanding the truth behind the conflict portrayed in million-dollar CGI.

The father made a bet with his two sons - they would visit a country ravaged by the affects of war with him and upon their return, having engaged with those impacted, be free to make the decision to play any video game, if they still wanted to.

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1st born June 2013
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Re: Article - Gamer kids go to war zone

  • needanustartneedanustart member

    I know I'm a Grinch but DH and I have already committed to be a video game free household. We both had the same upbringing in that department. Our kids (as we were) free to play them elsewhere but we don't like having mindless, addictive games and toys around for the kiddos. I remember seeing some friends playing Grand Theft Auto in high school and they were like, "I'm going to bang this hooker and then kill her. Awesome!" And they were nice guys. I was so disturbed by it and even at 15 thought: this can't be good. The idea of anything, be it movies or games or shows desensitizing kids to violence is a real problem for our society. I'm not placing the blame for all violence on video games, and I don't want to ban them or anything (and I believe in free will) but I think we need to be a little more conscious as a society about what we are exposing our kids to. I think what this dad did was pretty cool in terms of balancing free will and being conscious of what these games are simulating.  

     

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  • musicalsilvermusicalsilver member
    After reading an article about how a small amount of video gaming can actually benefit children I've been thinking about this a lot.  I don't play video games at all, but DH is big into them.  I can see allowing a choice of playing video games (which DH has vetted, so not things like Grand Theft Auto - as @calikat80 has mentioned, that stuff is disturbing) as part of an allowed screen-time in a day.  

    As for this article, I think it's a nice enough idea, but really not feasible (the general idea of it and the financial aspect of it).  I appreciate the lesson that that parent is trying to impart, but I just don't feel as though the true nature of warfare can be appreciated by anything other than first hand experience in warfare, not just looking at some war-torn countryside.  We had a holiday in Croatia when I was about 16 where we drove through abandoned bombed out villages, and while spooky as hell, wouldn't make me appreciate what was going on in a war-fare-based video game any more.
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