The kid who can play imaginatively doesn't tend to be violent. It's the same with adults.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The thing about a violent kid is that he can't play imaginatively.
I'm very careful about how I portray violence in my films. I do believe that violence, especially violent video games, are not a good thing for young kids.
Still, most of those effects occur in the context of harmless play and it is patently obvious that children are not normally turned into aggressive little monsters by TV or video games, since most children do not become aggressive little monsters.
I think video games and that stuff should be as violent as possible, but age-appropriate. It should be realistic. When it's not realistic you run into kids running around shooting people and not realizing the consequences.
Research has shown that children who play often both solitarily and socially become more creative and imaginative than those whose exposure to play and toys is limited.
I've made plenty of violent games in my life. I play violent games. They don't affect people in the way that a lot of people think they do. They just don't. It's demonstrably true that they don't, and anybody who thinks they do is just not thinking.
Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy.
I was a very violent kid. I think movies and writing and art have been a way of channeling this.
What many teachers observe as violent behavior is often really just playful aggression.
If an adult uses violence on a child, the child will naturally assume that he too, has the right to use it on one smaller or weaker.