AS A 14-year-old who has been playing video games since the age of three, I resent India Knight’s implying that my parents have been emotionally abusing me by allowing me to play such games as Grand Theft Auto (The kiddie killing fields, News Review, last week). I doubt that I would be described as aggressive by anyone and my emotions are not “bludgeoned out of recognition”.

Amanda Lynch talks about how hunting is good for a child’s development (Children need the thrill of the chase). Surely it must be better to let one’s aggression out in a game than inflicting pain on a living creature? I do not see how Warren Leblanc could have been a normal member of society even if he hadn’t played Manhunt. As another gamer recently put it: “The truth is a psychotic individual, with or without their video games, is still a psychotic individual”.

Barnaby Suttle
Bath

DANGER FOR ALL: I disagree that adults should feel free to indulge in playing violent computer games in the privacy of their own homes. Any game that can turn a child into a murderous monster can also have a similar effect on those over 18. I, for one, would be most alarmed if my 60-year-old husband were to take up playing Grand Theft Auto or Manhunt instead of his usual Sunday afternoon pastime of reading this newspaper.

On-screen violence has come a long way since A Clockwork Orange. The growing level of violence is one side effect of our freedom of expression.

Anne Hofmann
Castlebar, Co Mayo

INFORMED: The main consumers of computer games are now adult males in their mid to late twenties. This is the demographic that watches John Woo films and buys GQ, FHM and Loaded magazines.

The middle classes, whose ignorance infuriates Knight, have entirely missed this significant shift in the marketplace. Nobody would walk into a video shop and expect everything to be suitable for their 12-year-old, yet computer games are treated differently.

I found Knight’s sniping at adult gameplayers curious, though. As one of the “tragic” gameplaying adults (rest assured it isn’t just men), I will be able to exercise informed choice when my son (now six months old) starts asking for a console for his birthday.

Alan Jones
South Quensferry, West Lothian