Child kills father over Playstation

[CarefulWetPaint]

Saudi boy, 4 Kills Father over Playstation: Report

An angry four-year-old Saudi boy shot and killed his father for refusing to buy him a PlayStation, Saudi media reported on Monday.
The Asharq daily, citing police in the southern Jizan area, said the child, aged four years and seven months, grabbed his father's pistol and shot him in the head.
According to the newspaper, the child had asked his father to buy him a PlayStation and the shooting took place after the man returned home without the desired object.
As he was undressing, the man put the weapon down, which the child then grabbed and fired at him from close range.

Taken from with credit to: Ninemsn


With this in mind do you think our younger generations have too much of an addiction to technology and video games? Do you think this addiction will have a negative effect on our future, such as governing bodies or possible obesity issues?

 

[Sector]

With this in mind do you think our younger generations have too much of an addiction to technology and video games? Do you think this addiction will have a negative effect on our future, such as governing bodies?

Disappointing I tell ya, makes me wonder why I am so close to this generation's age. No offense to the younger people in here. But I understand the addiction, as I owned a 360 and I took things very serious, both stats and playtime. The modern generation are compose of to many laziness and personal gain for one's self. If you want something, you have to have it and treat it was a need. It's a disappointing. It's no different than those who party every night, drink, smoke, do drugs and so on. Gaming falls right in that category of bad behavior and possibly criminals. (First Person Shooter games, aka, Call of Duty and Halo).

Bad parenting also leads to another one. Parents has to treat kids with respect and protect them from bad things. I have seen so many parents be careless or takes treated badly that they treat their own the same way, it's not even funny. Especially the male/fatherly relations. They tend to not be there for their child, which can cause personal problems, careless about what goes on and be abusive and so on. And as the society goes, gaming can teach you these things and it's very, very rare to find a male gender to NOT be a gamer or own a game system. It could be all they live for and the child can adapt the same situation within their bloodline or be introduced by it by friends/family members.

It's a such a sad, sad world, this could be possibly the reason for such boredom for me, because no one ever goes outside and want to play some sports or something :\ Bummer...

 

[Bela]

With this in mind do you think our younger generations have too much of an addiction to technology and video games? Do you think this addiction will have a negative effect on our future, such as governing bodies or possible obesity issues?

Younger generations are exposed to new technologies at a frequency that older generations simply have not. The smartphone is a very good example of this. It is not uncommon now for young children to have iphones/android phones, devices that give us virtually any information we want at our fingertips.

Do I find this to necessarily be a bad thing? Of course not. Having greater access to more information than ever before in our lives, smartphones are quite useful to have.

Video games are just a kind of entertainment. If it weren't video games, we would be talking about movies, or television shows, or any other form of entertainment. Not everybody is killing their friends or family after repeated exposure to video games or other entertainment.

I find it foolish to judge technology by the perceived undue influence it may have on the lowest common denominators in our society. If we shrunk away from innovating or creating, for fear of what some deranged minds may do in relation with the results, we wouldn't have new technology.

 

[-Grayscale-]

I've been wanting my parents to get me a Playstation for a while aha, but as if I truly expect them to pull $200 out of their pocket. I've been saving up for months to buy it myself. But seriously, a four year-old demanding for that, let alone killing for it? I'm a videogame addict, sure, but murdering someone over electronics is freaking insane- I really hope the little guy didn't know what he was actually doing shooting his father like that. I mean... I didn't even realize what a videogame was until I was 5, and that was a gameboy. I thought Playstation games were much more advanced.

"With this in mind do you think our younger generations have too much of an addiction to technology and video games?" Of course they do. Higher technology is basically all we've been talking about on the media lately, not to mention that parents have enough money these days to get their little kids iPhones the second they ask for one. Same goes with teens and their iPods. An example I can give you is my cousins, who used to be very social and kind to the family during holidays and birthdays. Now, each time we see them they're on their iPhones. They literally don't talk anymore, unless you say hi. Still makes me really upset, since we used to get along so well. Studies also show that younger kids/teens who text frequently and communicate through technology actually slowly become more and more insecure. Doesn't relate to everyone of course, but I thought it was interesting.

"Do you think this addiction will have a negative effect on our future, such as governing bodies or possible obesity issues?" I read somewhere they've already begun hooking up computers to people's brains. Very frightening to think about, but I do think everything is going to impact us eventually. Better or worse.


*cough* anyways...

Honestly, I think this situation just happened because of bad parenting. That's all there really is to it. Too careless with their gun, and too careless about their apparently technology-psycho child. It's sad such a thing happened, but one bad scenario doesn't mean we should judge the entire generation of children for it.

 

[Ghiaccio]

I personally just find it sad that the kid shot his dad over a Playstation... I don't think it's really that kids are getting addicted to video games, it's more just raising children badly and spoiling them, and then when they don't get want they throw tantrums and go to extremes to get it (like this one is really extreme, but it's an example...)

 

[Oryx]

Higher technology is basically all we've been talking about on the media lately, not to mention that parents have enough money these days to get their little kids iPhones the second they ask for one. Same goes with teens and their iPods. An example I can give you is my cousins, who used to be very social and kind to the family during holidays and birthdays. Now, each time we see them they're on their iPhones. They literally don't talk anymore, unless you say hi. Still makes me really upset, since we used to get along so well. Studies also show that younger kids/teens who text frequently and communicate through technology actually slowly become more and more insecure. Doesn't relate to everyone of course, but I thought it was interesting.

First bolded point: Um, what? What makes you think that people nowadays are more able to afford technology than in the past?

Second bolded point: Can you cite these studies?

As far as the story: children at that age are pretty bad honestly, because they've learned the bad things that people can do to get their way but not the consequences that go along with it. The fact that it's about a Playstation is pretty irrelevant to the article, anything the child liked would probably have elicited a similar reaction, especially if the family was so comfortable around guns that the father felt fine with putting his gun in reach of his four-year-old.

 

[Yoshikko]

With this in mind do you think our younger generations have too much of an addiction to technology and video games? Do you think this addiction will have a negative effect on our future, such as governing bodies or possible obesity issues?

This is probably the first thing I noticed which I thought was strange because firstly, like Toujours said, the fact that it was a Playstation is pretty irrelevant, it was a 4 year old kid so it could have happened with anything. And so secondly it's not like this kid is 'addicted' or anything to a video game and shot his father with that intention because he wouldn't let him get it? The first thing that I find strange is why as a parent you place a GUN next to your kid? If that was a little stick or something he would have probably just poked him hard or hit him with it, idk just so many things are noticable/strange about this.

 

[CarefulWetPaint]

Would you rather if i took the with this in mind out then? The whole point is to get a discussion going about the generations addiction to technology, and i could argue at 4, if the child has play video games he would indeed know that pointing a gun at someone and shooting them would most likely end up with the shot person dying.

 

[Oryx]

I just don't feel like the news article is a very good jumping-off point for a discussion about video game addiction because I feel like it doesn't give a good example of that kind of addiction at all. When I was older than him, I knew that hitting my sister would get me what I wanted from her, but it didn't occur to me that I would hurt her or get in trouble in the emotional, heat-of-the-moment small child mentality. That applies to all children; they tend not to think into the future past a few seconds later when they get what they want. The cause of this particular shooting is more likely traced to the lack of healthy trepidation instilled in the child about firearms, since they're apparently comfortable with leaving them in his reach and carrying them around the child.

 

[-Grayscale-]

First bolded point: Um, what? What makes you think that people nowadays are more able to afford technology than in the past?

Second bolded point: Can you cite these studies?

As far as the story: children at that age are pretty bad honestly, because they've learned the bad things that people can do to get their way but not the consequences that go along with it. The fact that it's about a Playstation is pretty irrelevant to the article, anything the child liked would probably have elicited a similar reaction, especially if the family was so comfortable around guns that the father felt fine with putting his gun in reach of his four-year-old.

All I can say that we have more technology than we used to, and thus many more buys. It's not that people can necessarily afford iPhones, Playstations, or whatever they want; just that it's become so common to have the devices in the first place. Sorry if I was confusing there, I think I said the wrong thing.

I can't, sorry. It was merely something I heard from a professional speaker who came to educate us about the internet/technology in school. I have no idea where she got the information from, but you could probably look it up(not that you may or may not get correct data).

Back when I was that age, I was much more oblivious. I don't think children should be too exposed to those things at that age lol. But I can agree how the Playstation may have been slightly irrelevant to the situation.

 

[CarefulWetPaint]

Would you prefer to find a more suitable article then?

 

[Shanghai Alice]

Guns don't kill people, video games kill people?

Please.

A kid hacked his father to death over WoW a few years ago. And yet, this generation hasn't turned into bloodthirsty zombies, hungry for the Internet and human flesh.

Not the shooters. Not the technology. Maybe not even the parents.

Some people are crazy, age irrelevant. Before video games, they blamed lunacy on the freaking moon. It's a timeless problem.

 

[Zet]

A four-year-old Saudi boy shot his father in the head while playing with his gun at their house, reportedly after his parent refused to buy him a PlayStation video game console.
After the boy and his father returned home from the shop, the man, in his forties, put down his pistol while taking off his shirt.
He did not notice that his son had grabbed his gun and was playing with it before putting his little finger on the trigger.
The father died instantly.
Some media reports however suggest the death was an accident, although Arabic media has already labeled the boy the youngest killer in Saudi Arabia

https://rt.com/news/boy-kills-father-over-playstation-724/

Sounds more like an accident than a killing over no playstation.

 

[Nihilego]

@ Zet, whose account of the incident was that?

Guns don't kill people, video games kill people?

Please.

A kid hacked his father to death over WoW a few years ago. And yet, this generation hasn't turned into bloodthirsty zombies, hungry for the Internet and human flesh.

Not the shooters. Not the technology. Maybe not even the parents.

Some people are crazy, age irrelevant. Before video games, they blamed lunacy on the freaking moon. It's a timeless problem.

I'm inclined to agree with this. Although I don't like such a vague use of "crazy" here, you have a good point which makes sense to me. Perhaps some video games do encourage violence, but I doubt a child of this age would have been exposed to them. Children have always killed their parents (rarely, of course) over very trivial things and I imagine it's issues with the children, not the parents, that cause this. I'm tempted to believe that the article is an attempt to blame video game addiction for something unrelated. The kid was obviously angry (assuming he did it deliberately), and yes the video game caused this, but anything could have caused it in the first place. I don't think this was the fault of technology.

...I'm wondering why the father put the gun down around his son though.

 

[Captain Fabio]

I DETEST STORIES WROTE LIKE THIS!

You take the console out of the picture, it would have happened with something else. This child CLEARLY has something mentally wrong with him to murder someone over an object. It isn't because his Playstation wasn't bought for him so he can't live without it so he will kill someone. He has something wrong with him, end off.​

​

 

[Esper]

Younger generations are exposed to new technologies at a frequency that older generations simply have not. The smartphone is a very good example of this. It is not uncommon now for young children to have iphones/android phones, devices that give us virtually any information we want at our fingertips.

Do I find this to necessarily be a bad thing? Of course not. Having greater access to more information than ever before in our lives, smartphones are quite useful to have.

Video games are just a kind of entertainment. If it weren't video games, we would be talking about movies, or television shows, or any other form of entertainment. Not everybody is killing their friends or family after repeated exposure to video games or other entertainment.

I find it foolish to judge technology by the perceived undue influence it may have on the lowest common denominators in our society. If we shrunk away from innovating or creating, for fear of what some deranged minds may do in relation with the results, we wouldn't have new technology.

It's not foolish to say that a technology has an influence on people and society as a whole.

I don't have studies to back me up, but my own anecdotal observations lead me to believe that half of young people could not function as well as they do without their smartphones. For instance, give them a map or set of directions instead of GPS and they'll have a hard time figuring out how to get somewhere they've never been before. They've either never had to do it that way and don't know how, or they've trained themselves to rely on their phones to do it for them.

There was a study I read about which talked about how using and even thinking about using social media affected one's brain/thinking/whatever. I wish I could find it.

 

[droomph]

@Scarf Well you see, do you remember PE class, where after a long break you found out that you were weaker? Yeah, muscle dystrophy.

The brain goes through that too, and if we don't constantly train our brains to store directions to places for a couple hours then that part of our brain will dystrophy. However, we're also training ourselves to react quicker to immediate directions and requests so we're not degenerating as a society.

That being said what parts of our brain we're actually training makes us all a little bit angry when it's not being stimulated. So yeah.

Disappointing I tell ya, makes me wonder why I am so close to this generation's age. No offense to the younger people in here. But I understand the addiction, as I owned a 360 and I took things very serious, both stats and playtime. The modern generation are compose of to many laziness and personal gain for one's self. If you want something, you have to have it and treat it was a need. It's a disappointing. It's no different than those who party every night, drink, smoke, do drugs and so on. Gaming falls right in that category of bad behavior and possibly criminals. (First Person Shooter games, aka, Call of Duty and Halo).

Bad parenting also leads to another one. Parents has to treat kids with respect and protect them from bad things. I have seen so many parents be careless or takes treated badly that they treat their own the same way, it's not even funny. Especially the male/fatherly relations. They tend to not be there for their child, which can cause personal problems, careless about what goes on and be abusive and so on. And as the society goes, gaming can teach you these things and it's very, very rare to find a male gender to NOT be a gamer or own a game system. It could be all they live for and the child can adapt the same situation within their bloodline or be introduced by it by friends/family members.

It's a such a sad, sad world, this could be possibly the reason for such boredom for me, because no one ever goes outside and want to play some sports or something :\ Bummer...

But we also need every aspect of the situation before we jump to conclusions.

 

[Kura]

How the heck can a 4 year old even handle a gun? Doesn't it break its arms with that sort of recoil? I mean we're talking about a 4 year old here; it hardly knows how to spell simple words.

 

[Oryx]

It's not foolish to say that a technology has an influence on people and society as a whole.

I don't have studies to back me up, but my own anecdotal observations lead me to believe that half of young people could not function as well as they do without their smartphones. For instance, give them a map or set of directions instead of GPS and they'll have a hard time figuring out how to get somewhere they've never been before. They've either never had to do it that way and don't know how, or they've trained themselves to rely on their phones to do it for them.

There was a study I read about which talked about how using and even thinking about using social media affected one's brain/thinking/whatever. I wish I could find it.

To be fair though, take someone from 20 years ago and ask them to read where they're going using the stars. It was a common method of navigation a long time ago, but even given all the tools, adults nowadays probably wouldn't be able to do it without a lot of coaching. Is that a bad thing? Is it as bad as not being able to read a paper map without help?

I'm not so sure that would even be true though, because Google Maps uses directions as well, and it looks a lot like a paper map. It would be a pain, yeah, but I don't think anyone would be unable to figure it out. What's the difference?

 

[-ty-]

I don't think this incident should give rise to concerns over gaming addictions in youth.

This type of behavior is not typical, and is not reflective of most people.

1. Perhaps the child suffers from a mental illness or anti-social disorder.
2. Perhaps there were also external factors, stressors, that actually inspired the violent behavior. The PlayStation is probably just a distraction from the underlying reasons why the child committed the murder. Any type of abuse falls under this.
3. Perhaps the child accidentally shot the father.

My guess is that it's a combination of the first two. However, this is just a "guess". I do not know the full details. The way this article is presented to us on the thread unintentionally screams sensationalism. The PlayStation has very little, if any, pertinence to the crime. Perhaps we could go on to discuss gun control laws, and the causes of violent behaviors of children.

Alternative article of the story:
https://www.ibtimes.com/articles/33...lling-abuse-playstation-saudi-middle-east.htm

This article does touch on some points I made. Also it acknowledges that these types of crimes are being reported more frequently, however, that does not mean the occurrences are on the rise, nor does it mean that they are common occurrences.