YOUTH CRIME IN NZ:
The country's top youth cop Superintendant Bill Harrison has some disturbing comments to make about the effects of video games on the levels of youth crime in NZ. We must commend him for his forthright views, since we are all concerned at the increasing amounts of media violence which our kids are exposed to , in both computer games, on Television and the Internet. While our politicians and policy planners wring their hands about rising youth , they are short in coming up with solutions. Yet it is obvious that violent crime amongst the young has escalated at precisely the same time as our youth are being exposed to unprecedented levels of media violence. Yet apart from MEDIA MATTERS, few are prepared to take on the media directly. So well done Supt Harrison. The NZ Herald was the only one of our major dailies which printed our expression of support for Supt Harrison sent to them all by them all (see below) so well done to the Herald too!

 

MORE BAD NEWS:
We have recently had incidents of text and mobile phone bullying at schools around NZ which has alarmed Education Authorities and Parents and Teachers.

 

This type of media violence is an increasing trend. A report by the Stout Research Centre at Victoria University states uncategorically after a survey of Wellington and Hutt Valley secondary schools that " 'Respondents' main concerns here were: Students accessing harmful material e.g. pornography; bullying via social networking sites, email; vulnerability to paedophiles; unsupervised internet use at home. Management of technology included blocks on web sites and placing computer screens so that teachers could easily see them.".

 

It is a symptom of new technologies that their use spreads more rapidly that our ability to control them.