Here We Go Again...

[drterror666]

I was reading a story on the BBC News about a 15 year old boy who murdered his mother and set fire to the body. I was particularly interested in this snippet:

The court heard he had been particularly interested in a Coronation Street storyline involving the character John Stape. In the soap, Stape had murdered a woman with a hammer and then left her body in the wreckage of a tram crash. It was also revealed Daniel had been watching violent horror films since he was eight and had viewed the film Saw hours before killing his mother.

I can just imagine the Daily Heil falling over themselves with this one. Never mind the violent horror, I think we should ban Coronation Street! Violent filth!

[thehamish]

Ahem. Can i just pop in here, and say that watching Corrie on a regular basis would be drive me into a homicidal rage.

[christats]

Firstly, watching horror films or violent programs will put images or twist the viewpoint of most people in their head.
I'm sure I am a bit more cynical and a tad more paranoid than if I spent my time watching The Darling Buds of May or whatever.

What most people,myself included do is seperate fantasy from reality and rationalize.I agree with the ratings system, as when video's first appeared they didn't have one ?
What the media cannot handle is the random madness of a few individuals.So to blame something for the action is the same boring old argument.
The people keeping an eye on the lad need to be looked at,not what he was watching.
Did acts of evil suddenly stop with the video nasties act in the 80's, I am guessing not.
I find some of the storylines in soaps fairly offensive,when they are on in the early evenings.Watching horror films from the age of 8. That isn't the fault of a horror film for existing.

[Blink]

"We know it was the right result at court, but trying to understand how a boy you have loved for 14 years can do something like this is so difficult.

"To find out that Daniel planned to kill his own mother and then hear all the details, it is all so hard to believe.

"The most difficult part for us and something that only Daniel can answer is 'why?'"

If you feed enough films then surely it will have a drip drip effect and desensitize the viewer like when we were children we acted out our favs like western shoot outs being Batman etc etc and become Dirty Harry in our minds.

What drove him to do this is most likely a lot of things like troubled background etc etc and I think films just added to it and took it overboard.

[drterror666]

These teenage psychos tend to have a shit life, whether it be violent or ignorant. There's always the 'but he was a lovely person' brigade, but they have no idea what goes on behind closed doors.

It's easier to blame it on violent films/tv. Again, I call for a ban on Coronation Street!

[drterror666]

Here comes the Sun...

We must vet screen violence ...but people’s mental health is more important than The Rovers

[thehamish]

Here comes the Sun...

We must vet screen violence ...but people’s mental health is more important than The Rovers

Yet again printing the lies about Child's Play i see. and surely in the case of columbine, the fact that weapons are legally available to buy yet again goes unchallenged, same as it ever was....im now off to murder anyone who says Gossip Girl is shite, and see how far that defence lasts me


JOKE.

[drterror666]

I don't understand it. I watched horror, in the form of Hammer, Amicus, etc., when I was an ickle child. Then, aged 12, I progressed onto the REAL stuff - can't beat a bit of gore whilst eating your lunch! I've been watching 'violent' horror all my life, yet I've never had the inclination to kill anyone because I saw it in a movie.

And if you call me a liar, I'll bury you deep in the ground with all the others who said I was mad!

[thehamish]

hahaha, indeed. kneejerk drivel to sell their shitty rag.

[TheRoadWarrior]

Wes Craven said of kids watching horror films that it was a "bootcamp for the psyche".

[mark meakin]

Naturally Murdoch will now refuse to let Sky Movies ever screen the 'Saw' films again & their like !..Hypocrites as normal.See how well the Sky movie channels would fare with 24 hour 7 days a week Disney movie screenings.

[rlr]

i remember reading of a case where three schoolboys got drunk and attempted to recreate the infamous torture scene from Reservoir Dogs. the press was basically "let us not ask why they were not in school, or how they got alcohol and a straight razor, or even how they got their hands on an 18 cert film. let us call for this film (and 20 or so others) to be banned". there's also the small matter of someone who sees something like the Mr Blonde scene and deciding "i want to do that" clearly needing help.

there are many things i miss about back home, the British press is not one of them.

what comes to mind is a comedy routine (sorry, for get by who) about them trying to ban "gangsta rap" in the States as it may inspire people to shoot cops. like there are people going around saying "man, I really want to shoot a police officer right now, but I do not have the correct music to play as I do it".

[thehamish]

Indeed, remember folks its all in the name of CONTROL. Fear and comsumption keeps us happy in our cages.....

[rlr]

i would suggest all that haven't read State Of Fear by the sadly late Michael Crichton. leaving aside the ludicrous plot and preposterous twists, hidden in it are the research he did and how the press and governments wipe up a frenzy.

although the intelligent people here don't need to be told it's always one panic after another in the press. odd how we are not being alerted to be on the lookout for either swine flu or bird flu anymore, i am assuming soon we will be hearing all about tuna flu or similar.

[drterror666]

Well, the original subject of my post appears to have been swept aside to make way for more stories of celebrities shagging other celebrities and Syria trading handbags with Turkey. This would never have happened in the 80's.

[rlr]

Well, the original subject of my post appears to have been swept aside to make way for more stories of celebrities shagging other celebrities and Syria trading handbags with Turkey. This would never have happened in the 80's.

no of course not, no newspaper would have run something like "Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster" as a front page instead of a proper story back in the 80s

[thehamish]

Well, the original subject of my post appears to have been swept aside to make way for more stories of celebrities shagging other celebrities and Syria trading handbags with Turkey. This would never have happened in the 80's.

Indeed. Admittedly the comments under that Sun article were nearly all people saying "WTF? Films DONT make you violent", so hopefully there has been a sea change there, i blames Saw, downloading et bleeding cetera hahaha

[drterror666]

I honestly don't know how you stop young kids getting hold of hardcore violence and porn these days. I mean, you give them a smart phone and a whole world of possibilities is opened up.

When I worra lad, y'had to sneak in yer dad's 'special' drawer, like, once they'd gone t'bed. My parents would rather me watch gruesome horror than porn, and even that rule wasn't cast in iron.

[rlr]

I honestly don't know how you stop young kids getting hold of hardcore violence and porn these days. I mean, you give them a smart phone and a whole world of possibilities is opened up.

When I worra lad, y'had to sneak in yer dad's 'special' drawer, like, once they'd gone t'bed. My parents would rather me watch gruesome horror than porn, and even that rule wasn't cast in iron.

i think it boils down to the fact that kids will get hold of it, parenting should be perhaps the issue. a lot of the stuff out there today freely available across the net is undoubtedly a lot more graphic, gruesome and extreme (in particular psychologically) than the stuff we sneaked a gander at back in the 80s, but that's not the point. teaching them right from wrong, and helping them understand what they see and read is not real, is surely the platform to try and avoid this happening?

and sort of helping it get back on topic, does Coronation Street still attract an audience somwhere around 20 million? if so, that's one person who did something stupid and was perhaps "encouraged" by a legal type to say he did it because he saw it on a show, many many others who simply saw it and went and had a cup of tea.

[TheRoadWarrior]

I think, as Doc says, kids will find a way, then, now, always... as kids we were pretty robust, that gets forgotten too, sometimes...