Australian Police Commissioner blames video games for rising youth violence

The Police Commissioner of the Australian state of New South Wales blamed violent video games for the rise in crimes committed by young people today, saying that youths are being desensitized by video game violence.

The Police Commissioner of the Australian state of New South Wales blamed violent video games for the rise in crimes committed by young people today, saying that youths are being desensitized by video game violence.

While it is not unusual for conservative groups and lobbies to speak out against violent video games, this is the first time a representative of the state's law enforcement body has blamed interactive entertainment for an increase in crimes.

The NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said that there has been an increase in people carrying knives and using them, and he concluded that there was "nothing more potentially damaging than the sort of violence they're being exposed to, be it in movies, be it in console games they're playing."

"How can it not affect you if you're a young adolescent growing up in an era where to be violent is almost praiseworthy, where you engage in virtual crime on a daily basis and many of these young people (do) for hours and hours on end," he said.

"You get rewarded for killing people, raping women, stealing money from prostitutes, driving cars crashing and killing people. That's not going to affect the vast majority but it's only got to affect one or two and what have you got? You've got some potentially really disturbed young person out there who's got access to weapons like knives or is good with the fist, can go out there and almost live that life now in the streets of modern Australia. That's concerning."

Scipione's comments came in light of a recent string of stabbings in NSW that have involved young people and resulted in numerous deaths and injuries of teenagers.