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Ban Quake, Home Office adviser demands

Menace to Society

British kids should be banned from playing gory computer games, a Home Office adviser has warned. PC games which celebrate murder and mutilation encourage youngsters already predisposed to violence to commit crimes and become a menace to Society, said forensic psychologist Professor Kevin Browne. "It is gory for gory's sake. If you run down a pedestrian, they don't just fall down, their limbs fall off, their heads fall off, there is blood and the sound of bones cracking," he said. "The fact you earn points by knocking down pedestrians seems to me against all the principles of what we are trying to do in society." The comments are backed by research which found children aged 11-14 became more aggressive after playing certain PC games. The biggest culprits were games which rewarded players according to the number of people they hit, shot or demonically ran down, such as Carmageddon, Doom, Resident Evil or Quake III, today's Daily Mail reported. "What these games are doing is reinforcing their own distorted thinking processes. Therefore, those youngsters which have a predisposition to steal cars will carry out that act more often as a result of playing these games," said Browne. The concerns will be highlighted in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, Video Nasties, tomorrow night. The programme will also look at last year's Columbine High School massacre, where 15 people were killed by teenagers thought to have been influenced by watching violent games. Last year, the Brazilian government banned games including Quake and Doom it deemed too dangerous. ® Related Stories Brazil bans Quake and other PC games Windows to block violent, adult games Games vendors to 'blame' for murdered students

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