Games and brains and children...and adults

Monday 14 October 2013 4:40PM (view full episode)

Do you find yourself reaching for your electronic device to play games? Perhaps solitaire or candy crush? Surely it's all harmless fun albeit a bit of a waste of time.

What about for children? Should they be playing games on devices instead of games outside? Or can it be a mix of the two? Or does it depend on the game?

The recently released Grand Theft Auto V has just broken seven world records according to the Guinness World Records, including fastest selling video franchise. It took just three days for it to reach the $US 1 billion. But it's a deeply violent game whereby the more violently you kill somebody the more points you accrue who should play this game? Teenagers, children or adults? If it's children and teenagers might it distort their reality and even damage their brains?

View comments (5)


Associate Professor Michael Nagel
Associate Professor of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
University of the Sunshine Coast


Amanda Vanstone

Comments (5)

Add your comment

  • Lynden ainslie :

    15 Oct 2013 10:11:10pm

    Oh at last!! How refreshing to hear Professor Michael Nagel.
    As an art teacher, in fact in the Northern Territory, I despair that so many students are encouraged to work on computers and iPads, which is a second hand experience of the wonderful world around them. The joy of sustained contemplation when students draw and paint is a total involvement which reflects back to the students their ability to work and the results of their efforts in a truly meaningful, nourishing way, which they just love.
    The increasing use of these device worries me terribly.

  • Michael. :

    16 Oct 2013 12:59:54am

    Ok ... as an 18 year old, it needs to be said.

    Firstly. G.T.A V (the latest one) is rated R in Australia and if we didnt have the introduction of the R rating, the game would have been either toned down or banned.

    Secondly. Why do all media grossly simplify the G.T.A series by saying the more people you kill the more points you earn? When there isnt even a point system in the game. Only in the very first game did it, and it was made in 1997 back when the graphics were pixel sprites, you got into a car, and evaded police and could crash into people and cars.

    Today it is an interactive story, no different to a violent movie, but yes you are the one taking control.

    There are worse games and one which comes to mind Saint Row 4, which was banned in Australia due to visual depictions of implied sexual violence, which are not justified by context.

    That is the major issue here. The Context. The Saint Row games really are like how the media represent the GTA games. Saint Row is just senseless violence. While however the GTA games are deep storylines which explore interesting issues. G.T.A San Andreas explores Police corruption, racial violence in 1990 America and the drug trade by different racial gangs.

    Thirdly. I like the point on that kids struggle to distinguish non-verbal actions. However in the gaming industry there is a massive push to photo-realism and the use of motion-capture to simulate extremely accurately the human face. One of these games is L.A. Noire, a 1950's detective game where you have to judge where the witnesses are lying in a given case and you have to do this based on their body language and the evidence you find throughout the game. This game is also created by the same studio who make the G.T.A series.

    I would like to also comment on the fight or flight response when people play video games ... How is that different from the adrenaline when people watch horror movies?

    I know my rant here might sound like - " How dare you old people say these things!! "

    But it isn't really, but from the thinkings of a youth just try to keep an open mind about technology, and give younger people some credit, we haven't all turned into drug lords and pimps.

    Violent games can be enjoyed responsibly if the violence is placed in context, and as with anything, everything in moderation.

  • Liz W :

    18 Oct 2013 2:17:43pm

    Just listened to this program repeat on Friday and am so pleased to hear that finally someone is saying out loud what I have thought for a long time now, that our persistance with too liberal censorship laws is resulting in a society rife with learned desensitivity to violence, lack of morality and total preoccupation with the self.With no time spent in active outdoor role-play, any wonder our precious children are growing up into obese, selfish morons who are totally unable to contribute to their own life or the lives of others, resorting to drugs & alcohol to feel 'alive'.

  • bob :

    18 Oct 2013 8:27:15pm

    You can draw on your iPad and your computer. For the computer you can get free open source software such as GIMP which is better than the commercial stuff. Drawing tablets are very cheap now thanks to the touch screen revolution. You can also scan paper sketches and use software to alter them in interesting ways. Also with the scanner you can do really interesting art, try placing leaves etc on the scanner or move objects while the scanner is moving. You probably have a projector, scan in a sketch and blow it up onto a huge canvas, pencil in the outline and then paint with your favourite paint etc. Look for a web site called Deviant Art for examples of what can be done. When you are teaching your class, have access to wikipedia so that as you teach they can look up interesting things. For example what is "edge detection" in image processing.

    As to the use of devices being worrying, you need to look up the "Camera Obscura" a device used for many centuries to "cheat" at drawing. Using your iPad you can look up the history of the "lead" pencil - very interesting. What is cadmium yellow and why is it not good to eat? Find out about the technique of your favourite artist and watch a video of a "forger" painting in the same style. Embrace the new fangled acrylic paint but by all means experiment with oils too. All new technology at one time.

    Perhaps some of your students would like to paint cities in manga style, I hope you encourage them..... it's all art and interaction.

    If you have not already done so recently, consider taking a year off and refresh yourself. Perhaps do an art course that makes good use of technology.

  • crank :

    21 Oct 2013 4:19:31pm

    It is ironic that Counterpoint, for a change, has something useful to say, but concerning a Rightwing social priority-the debasement, moronisation and instillation of the habits of violence in society. This social engineering is designed to make societies more fit for purpose for the Right, thereby entrenching their dominance, so they think, forever. Regretably, thanks to the Right's anti-environmentalism, 'forever' means one or two decades more.