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Is your ‘child behaviour’ ‘out of control‘?
Apparently a large proportion of young males are being admitted into mental health services ‘out of control’ due to computer games.
Their presenting issues are of poor concentration, aggression, lack of communication and increased sexual activity.
A lot of these games are aimed at people 18 years old. Within these games are graphic portrayals of sex, violence and injuries, even death.
Have these children escaped into a world of fantasy in order to distract from their own lives?
This area of the brain is more evolved in humans than in any other creature. It also forms late in our development, not becoming fully active until our teenage years.
If you damage the prefrontal cortex, your senses and movements are not impaired but you change; you become more reckless, lose a sense of sequence and consequence, of narrative and of your place in these sequences.
In neurochemical terms, it is similar to gambling or taking drugs. It shows the same disregard for consequence and a confusion between reality and screen life as if you beat up an old lady on the street, recorded it with your mobile and put it on YouTube.
To be honest we do read about some indespicable events involving young people, is this how we intend to evolve?
So let me ask you who in your opinion is responsible?
Dawn Pugh
Related articles
- Serious claims belong in a serious scientific paper | Ben Goldacre (guardian.co.uk)
- Video games ‘can alter children’s brains’ (telegraph.co.uk)
- Biological Mechanisms of Aggression (aqapsyblog.wordpress.com)
- Digital Kids (bupa.com.au)
