Week 9 - Tutorial Task

What is Barak Obama up to today (21/09/2011)?
"President Obama Meets with World Leaders on Day Two at the U.N General Assembly" (Miller 2011)
-- Miller, L 2011, 'President Obama Meets with World Leaders on Day Two at the U.N General Assembly', The White House Blog viewed 21st September 2011 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog>

What are the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")?

Announced in late 2009, the ‘Clean Feed’ project is an internet filter system to be deployed by internet service providers (ISPs). It purportedly censors content such as “child sex abuse content, bestiality and sexual violence, as well as crime and drug use information” (Page 2010, p. 7).

 -- Page, R 2010, Choice, "'Clean-feed' filter to go ahead: a proposed web protection scheme may create more problems than it solves."  viewed 21st September 2011 via Expanded Academic ASAP. 

  

Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are.

Local - Susie Douglas

State - Peter Lawlor

Federal - Steven Ciobo
-- Council's Role in Government, viewed September 21st 2011, <http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/t_standard2.aspx?pid=4351>


Look up the Queensland or Australian hansard to find the last time your local member spoke in parliament.
Could not find Susie Douglas, but Peter Lawler last spoke on November 24th 2010 (Lawlor, P 2010)
-- Lawlor, P 2010, Commercial Agents Bill, viewed 21st September 2011,
<http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/Speeches/spk2010/Peter%20Lawlor%20spk%20Southport%202010_11_24_93.pdf#xml=http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/internetsearch/isysquery/c1256a92-df01-4070-b7c0-41af6ba12087/1/hilite/>

Short Essay Plan

Does the extensive use of computer/video games have an adverse impact on the health of young people. What are the most recent papers? Clarify what both sides of the argument claim and only then offer your reasoned opinion based on facts?

My position will be no, with arguments, of course, for and against the extensive use. Will conclude that although there a myriad of cases of adverse impacts, especially in relation to mental health, it is not the video games themselves that harm users. It is the users and the extent of parental control.

Key elements:

-- Introduction: Break down of the topic into components IE what is considered an adverse impact? Description of the various 'effects' of gaming such as aggressive behaviour, mental disorders, lack of exercise and perhaps an increased consumption of products such as energy drinks. Will state briefly two sides of this argument, and my main premise.

-- Psychotic/behavioural problems: will present case studies where this is allegedly applicable, but then counter with studies that have concluded that despite excessive gaming in young children, there were already latent problems occurring in the children beforehand and these were merely exacerbated by their use. So to prevent horrific cases such as these it is up to the parent to decide whether their children should be allowed. And also counter with the largely small percentage of violent cases caused by video games compared to non-gaming cases.

--Health: perhaps statistics (if i can find them) on whether there is an increased consumption of unhealthy foods by young people who are 'addicted' to video games. Counter this with an overall statistic of health which (hopefully) proves it is no different to everyday health of non-gamers.

--Obesity/Overweight: Whilst obviously extensive video gaming doesn't promote exercise, it isn't the direct cause, as it is up to the gamer on whether to exercise or not, they could easily be inside playing with toys instead which isn't active. And also the parental encouragement either way would be pivotal to young health.

-- Conclusion: Ultimately we cannot blame the actions and health problems of the young completely on this external factor. While in come cases it seems to be directly related, and stated by some children to be the case, it always comes down to free will, and decision-making. If a child is warned against the dangers, and steered away from these problems, it is less likely that these adverse impacts will occur. Whereas poor parenting and latent mental disorders could lead to negative examples.