Background:

Campaigners are stepping up pressure for a violent video game to be banned after it was blamed for the horrific murder of a 14-year-old British boy by an older friend.

CNN.com - Video game 'sparked hammer murder' - Jul 29, 2004

I sympathize with the family of Stefan (the boy who was killed). I really and truly do. I have two children of my own. But let’s lay the blame where it belongs. The killer (Warren Leblanc) was obviously unbalanced. He murdered an innocent 14-year old boy with a claw hammer, something only a person with some sort of mental disorder could do. He’s deranged by definition.

Maybe Warren did get the idea for how to murder Stefan from the game (Manhunt, Rockstar Games). Maybe it even helped incubate his feelings of confusion or rage or whatever it is that makes one want to kill someone else (murder to hide a robbery to pay a drug debt, according to the prosecutor). There are thousands of other people out there playing Manhunt and none of them has killed anyone. Clearly, there was something wrong with Warren before he ever picked it up. At most, it may have been a catalyst for his actions. But if it wasn’t the game, it would have been something else later on. In fact, I suspect Warren got it because of the way he was and not the other way around.

The real problem here is not Rockstar’s “murder simulator,” but Warren. There must have been signs that Warren was troubled long before this incident. Surely his parents knew he was playing Manhunt. Didn’t they question whether it was appropriate for him? Didn’t they question why he was playing it? Why he seemed “obsessed” with it, in the words of the victim’s mother?

Blaming a videogame for brainwashing a teenager into killing someone is a convenient but misguided attack. Banning Manhunt and other games like it will not stop mentally unbalanced teenagers from killing people. The only way to prevent these kinds of tragedies is to identify these kids before they act. I’m sure the signs were there, but in this case, no one looked; or perhaps they just didn’t understand what they were seeing.

Comments

1. Trent on 2006-12-20 12:39:59 wrote: This is like total crap video games dont posses people they are just there to entertain you this kid was probaly abused or they did a thing that upseted him or they influenceed him to kill or kill again you can never bve sure but this is just total crap people like this just piss me off!!!!!!

2. Trent on 2006-12-20 12:41:02 wrote: again i say it total crap