I think it's time to have a thread that we can all agree to disagree on.

Linky: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=26755

Ellie Gibson 15:21 (BST) 16/07/2007

"I didn't even realise games had age limits"

The mother of Stuart Harling, the 18 year-old convicted of stabbing nurse Cheryl Moss to death, has claimed that his violent behaviour was triggered by playing videogames such as Manhunt.

Speaking to the News of the World Lorraine Harling said, "I knew he was playing the video games but we didn't really know what went on in them, how brutal and graphic they were.

"Stuart was 11 or 12 when I bought him the PlayStation. For a long time I didn't even realise games had age limits on them. We'd just buy him the game that all the other kids had. I didn't really know what they were about. I think most parents are the same."

Stuart Harling was recently given a life sentence for his random attack on Moss, who he stabbed 72 times - according to the NOTW, "Just like he'd PRACTISED on the PlayStation in his bedroom."

"Every night he would retreat into his darkened bedroom at home in Rainham, Essex, and enter a grisly virtual world that revelled in sadism, ritual blood-letting and death. Just like millions of other youngsters," the article reads.

"One of baby-faced Harling's favourite games was the notorious Manhunt, where players SLASH and SLICE their victims with meat CLEAVERS, cheese WIRE and CHAINSAWS, or suffocate them with plastic bags."

Harling's mother is quoted as saying, "I know these games are played by kids across the world, but some are truly horrific. And if they can cause a trigger to be pulled in someone's head they should be banned."

I love how people blame their own mistakes on something else making them look like even bigger idiots in the process.

You mean I have to be a mother? I thought sitting my kid in front of the TV is good enough; it's cheaper than a babysitter after all. Besides, my *18 year old son* or I should be held accountable when the games did all this, not me mindlessly buying my kids games without seeing what I was getting. That's like giving me a speeding ticket when I didn't even know what the speed limit is!"*

The mother is just trying to get her kid some leniency by shifting the blame somewhere else. People are going to raise a big stink about it and waste a lot of time but in the end the kid is still going to get what he deserved for stabbing someone 72 times.



*Yes, that part is supposed to be as bad as it sounds

Excellent timing for negative Manhunt press. Haha.

put the mom in jail too. she raised the kid the way she did. charge her with neglect. :P

 wait. gamesindustry.biz is supposedly trust-able. I have no clue about the other source though. So, how can one go about to verify truthiness of the story?

The Gameindustry article is about the News of the World article. It's link is in the first post. Follow it. The story is a hack job written by a british tabloid. So yes, the mother did blame videogames, but the trashy tabloid writes things like 

New of the World... wow, looks like a very professional news site hehehe :)

And I think that with a game with the title "MANHUNT", you should expect to HUNT MEN

I just read an article about parents being addicted to an online game so much that they forgot to feed their infant children, and guess what? they blamed video games for it. I am so sick and tired of people blaming their mistakes on society, television and now video games. An 18-year old should be able to control his violent emotions and as far as I am concerned violent people seek violent games.

They actually did forget to feed their kids because they were addicted to the game (DDO), though I wouldn't blame the game so much but it still doesn't change the fact the game was the catalyst (same way with cigarettes and cancer).