Video games cause rising youth violence, reports top cop

Violent Xbox video games are being fingered by a top police officer in New Zealand as a possible cause of rising violence among young people.

Superintendent Bill Harrison, national manager of police youth services, says at a youth offending conference in Wellington on November 27 that youth violence rates have jumped in the past two or three years throughout the Western world, coinciding with the rise of new products such as the Xbox. Harrison provides statistics and arguments.

However, Auckland University psychologist Dr Ian Lambie said violent video games had no effect on most people.

[ by Simon Collins for The New Zealand Herald on November 28, 2007 ]