New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione has lashed out at violent video games and movies this morning, stating that nothing is potentially more damaging for children.
There is "nothing more potentially damaging than the sort of violence they're [children] being exposed to, be it in movies, be it in console games they're playing," Scipione told The Daily Telegraph.
"How can it not affect you if you're a young adolescent growing up in an era where to be violent is almost praiseworthy, where you engage in virtual crime on a daily basis and many of these young people (do) for hours and hours on end," he said.
"You get rewarded for killing people, raping women, stealing money from prostitutes, driving cars crashing and killing people."
His comments are refuted by numerous studies on the issue; however, they come after a spate of violent crimes involving adolescents around the country during the last month.
Dr Chistopher Ferguson later responded, telling The Daily Telegraph that Mr Scipione's claims were "irresponsible" and "based on no good research data as an emotional reaction to a 'recent spate' of knifings that could simply be due to a random fluctuation in crime rates".
By Ben Salter