Draft article text + images (For double page spread)

1. Draft text and images for blog
In recent years the popularity of video games has increased rapidly with a reported four out of five
households in the UK now owning a games console with the number ever increasing. Now, some
parents are concerned over the potential effect that the more violent video games are having over
their children’s young minds with a reported 85% of UK children playing explicit games before they
are old enough. With such young impressionable minds playing such violent games, surely this will
have an effect on them? This is what we intend to find out.
The Columbine High School massacre was a school shooting which occurred on April 20, 1999, at
Columbine High School in the USA.Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered a total of
12 students and one teacher. They injured 21 additional students, with three other people being
injured while attempting to escape the school. The pair then committed suicide. Jerald Block, a US
psychiatrist claims that it was the boys obsession with video games that had caused them to act out.
With it being reported they played violent video games such as Doom (Right). The game allowed
Harris to create different levels and some claimed that the levels resembled Columbine high school.
The Columbine High School massacre is the deadliest mass murder committed on an American high
school campus. Could this all be because of video games?
We went to the sixth form college Solihull to get the views of students on the subject.
Analysing those who do and those who do not play them. The overall results of the students views
were divided fairly equally with both sides of the argument receiving large backing with some saying
they don’t think it effects them at all and others saying it does indeed cause
violence. We went to speak to a psychology teacher for her views on the subject. She goes on to
explain the theory behind the effects of video games on teenagers minds.
It is thought that violent video games are having an effect more than any other, do you feel the
same? Can you be certain that ,what you may think is a harmless video game, isn’t having any effect
at all on the mental health of your children?
We may choose to include all or just some of the text and images above for our double page spread.
Although it is only draft work and we may add more information as we learn it.