Opinion Piece: My view on Super Nanny Blaming Games For London Riots

PLEASE NOTE: The views made in this article are that of the writer, and not of Push-Start.

It would be inevitable that another “expert” would be letting their views heard, pointing the finger at video games for the reason behind adolescent crime and violence. This time, British television presenter and “Super Nanny” Jo Frost, is blaming violent video games for the riots that rocked London last week.

In a recent column in the London’s Express:

Watching the streets of England burn last week, as the scenes of pillage and looting shocked the world, a disturbing connection that I believe fed into the rioters’ frenzy became clear to me. With hooded youths in pitched battles with police, all reason gone and high on destruction, I felt for a moment as if we had stumbled into a real-life violent video game of the kind that so many of those involved are addicted to.

These horrific games where points are given for burning, shooting and killing, where the graphics are so realistic you believe that they’re real scenes of carnage, where those who play fantasies they have the power of life and death, are so brutal they completely desensitize anyone taking part.

Frost continued by saying:

It is not too fanciful to suggest it’s a short step from being immersed in this war-like world to taking that nightmare mindset on to the streets with all the consequences of anarchy and violence we saw rip apart cities.

Ok, my turn to express my views on the “Games are to blame” fiasco. You would think that hearing so much from certain public figures ridiculing video games of being the reason behind real (may I emphasize that word) violence, you would get used to them. I for one, just get more infuriated by the narrow-minded allegations.

I have played both violent and non-violent video games for as long as I can remember and I have no criminal record, does that make me an exception? Absolutely not! In fact, gamers are generally the most polite, least dangerous people around. The worst you’ll probably get would be a bit of anonymous “trolling” or the occasional hot-head screaming down the headset of an online game.

With the way that Frost and the other “Crusaders” go on, they must be curious to wonder why the hell we haven’t burned E3 or Gamescom down to the ground years ago, after being warped by polygon violence.

Ask yourself something else; isn’t it curious that the only people who complain about the effects of video game violence are the very people who have NEVER picked up a gamepad themselves?

Frost is ignoring the wider scope of the riots; the riots are a symptom of deep socio-cultural problems that can’t be summed up or solved by quick sound-bites or cure-all newspaper columns. But ofcouse, it does not matter how logical my argument might be, it will never be enough for her or anyone else who makes such comments.

To put my argument simply: The riots of London were real. Real livelihoods were destroyed, real people’s lives were taken, real people were traumatized, mugged, beaten, etc. Video games are pretend. And that is the distinction that is needed taken into consideration.

If Frost was really the “Super Nanny” that she makes herself out to be; then she will understand that bad parenting, broken homes, and complex Sociological issues are actually to blame.