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Venezuela Bans Hostile Videogames and Toys
An anonymous reader writes "In an effort to 'help improve child education and prevent misconduct,' the Venezuelan government began enforcing a law on March 3rd banning war videogames and toys, imposing a fine and 2.5 years in prison on the production, distribution, sale, hiring and use of video games and toys inciting violent behavior. Alberto Federico Ravell, former director of opposing news network Globovision, has already come on twitter denouncing the authorities for seizing imported Gameboy, Wii and PlayStation 3 consoles, due to considering them violent."
When everyone carries a gun, only the truly crazy people try and use them on another person.
Imagine being at, say, McDonalds and the rough looking guy in a ski mask brings in a gun, fires a few shots at the ceiling and demands all the money from the registers.
In a normal scenario in any heavily gun controlled location, the guy may end up shooting a couple of people and even get away with some cash. If everyone was carrying, the moment he pulled out his gun, the rest of the establishment will have a gun pointed at the perp.
It's a better situation. Think about it. Really think about it.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Please see this book (and my other previous comment here):
http://www.amazon.com/War-Play-Dilemma-Childhood-Education/dp/080774638X
I wrote a review of it here:
http://www.pdfernhout.net/the-war-play-dilemma.html
Other related books about general issues and about what has been done to girls via media (and poor nutrition):
http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X
http://www.amazon.com/So-Sexy-Soon-Sexualized-Childhood/dp/0345505077
And something every caregiver should know now that kids spend a lot of time indoors and have become vitamin D deficient:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
We got rid of broadcast TV long ago too (we do use DVDs like Mr. Rogers and nature videos, and selected YouTube).
While I don't recommend any screen media for younger kids if you can avoid it, this site is pretty good for age four:
http://www.poissonrouge.com/
As is this:
http://www.starfall.com/
For older ages, some good things are:
http://www.learner.org/
http://www.khanacademy.org/
http://www.cosmolearning.com/
A caregiver needs to create a safe nurturing environment within a child's needs and abilities. You are doing the right thing.
Other useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parenting_styles
http://www.motherstyles.com/
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Hypocrisy is a popular Swedish melodic death metal band.
You are now manually breathing.
So Slashdot is handing out "+5 Insightfuls" for calling things retarded now, huh? Talk about low standards. While I may agree the law isn't worth anything, I would say that your comment contributed to the conversation in any meaningful way.
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