Barkley said:
I'm not saying that violence in video games has no effect on the person playing, there's many studies and debates about that and people come to different conclusions, that's another discussion. But what I'm talking about is general responses to the content. If you see something sexual on screen the general response for most people is Arousal, be it Movie, Game or Book. The response in real life to a sexual situation is also Arousal. The response to violence in a Movie, Game or Book varies based on the person but for most they're just having fun, whereas if they are in a violent situation in real life there response is not "I'm having fun", the general response to violence is terror. This is the difference. Sex on Screen - Aroused Violence on screen - Fun It's instinctive that we're in danger in a real violent situation, whereas when it comes to sexual situations there is no danger (at least for the instigator) so the reaction to onscreen and real is the same with sex, but not with violence. |
As Nem I really don't want to be seen as defending something I don't wanna defend (I already see posts here decrying defense of childporn). Still, I can't read this post without commenting.
First of all, you correctly state that studies are inconclusive about virtual violence causing real violence. But in no moment you even ask for studies showing that virtual sexualisation of children leads to child rape. I would say the scientific data is even sketchier on that.
But besides that you make a point about virtual violence is taken differently than virtual sex. Problem is: this is nothing natural, is something learned. If you look through movie history, violence didn't start out that explicit as it is today. Instead it slowly ramped up over decades. The viewing public was trained in watching this and the envelope of acceptable was slowly pushed outwards. Sex on screen though was always banned for religious reasons. Only these days the envelope is starting to slowly pushed about acceptable sexual content. And if you watch european movies, a lot more is possible than in american ones. So the differentiation you make between the two is really an artificial difference, created by movie history.
That said, sexualisation of children is always a special point. But you didn't talked about that, you spoke about sex on screen in general.
