Channel 4 study was "deliberately unbalanced"

Did any of you actually see that dreadful episode of Dispatches last Thursday (March 23)? The one where some loony American survivalist-type was outraged at kids being "trained to kill more effectively" by videogames? We thought that this was one of the most unbalanced pieces of investigative 'journalism' we've seen, and it would appear that ELSPA agree.

"Unfair, biased, and extremely irresponsible," is how Roger Bennett, Director General of ELSPA, described it. "There are many well known and well researched studies which examine the subject of computer games and potential links to violent behaviour, all of which conclude that there is no evidence that such links exist."

The programme suggested that playing games like Doom and Time Crisis gave kids the skills to be better killers, and that they are awarded points for killing. Killing? Pointing a cursor at a bunch of sprites in a game is hardly like pointing a gun at your teacher. If a kid doesn't know the difference between a game and real-life then he obviously has a few "issues" and should probably be in therapy.

We've been playing Need For Speed: Porsche 2000 recently and have no doubt become better drivers. If we keep practising hard, you just might spot the Future Gamer team in next year's Brazilian Grand Prix.