Policing Large Scale Disorder: Lessons from the disturbances of ...

Ev w78 Home Affairs Committee: Evidence
was asked what he liked about the games and he replied “sex and killing”. The writer refers to a recent study
of 10–11 year olds by Bristol University which found that playing computer games for more than two hours a
day increases the risk of mental health problems by 60%. In the writer’s view, “children are damaged beyond
measure by exposure to violent and sexual imagery and language, be it in the home or on the screen.” She
states that adults who allow this to happen (which include those responsible for censorship I would add) are
guilty of neglect. We are allowing these influences to create either trauma or a psychopathic mentality in our
young people when the brain is still being “wired up”.
In terms of sexual influences, a child of any age can listen to a CD at home with someone merrily declaring
“I want your disease, I want your everything as long as it’s free” (Bad Romance, Lady GaGa), “Sex in the air,
I don’t care, I love the smell of it. Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me”
(S & M, Rhianna) and “Girls, I fuck with them. Tell em anything they wanna hear so by the end of the night,
I’m fucking them” (Girls, N Dubz). The latter song lyrics and video are available online at the click of a button
and epitomise the raison d’etre of too many of our young people today. Characteristically, it depicts woman as
sex objects, men as gangsters and money and “bling” as the emblem of personal success and fulfillment. The
only missing element, which is ubiquitous in music videos of its ilk, is guns as glamorous accessories.
As part of a current Channel 4 offering, The Joy of Teen Sex, we were shown a report on the behaviour of
young people on holiday in Magaluf (or “Shagaluf” as it’s affectionately known). The orgy of extreme drinking
and shameless promiscuity—in clubs, on the street—was beyond belief. Standing back and looking at it, it
really did look like a snapshot of a civilization in its final death throes.
Pornography addiction is being described in the US as “our newest and most challenging mental health
problem” (Wendy Maltz, Psychotherapy Networker 2009) and the same is developing here—over one quarter
of all internet hits are for porn. My psychotherapy practice and those of my colleagues are now seeing
individuals and couples with difficulties related to internet pornography addiction. Even more worryingly,
children are regularly seeking out internet pornography, some of it degrading and extreme. Many are addicted.
Violent and pornographic material stimulates the same “feel good” chemicals as hard drugs and can be
powerfully addictive with more and more extreme stimulation needed over time to maintain the “high”.
“Heavy” use it has been shown with pornography causes physiological changes which take some time to be
reversed (The Porn Trap, Wendy and Larry Maltz, 2009).
We live in a society where addiction of all kinds is rife—addiction to violence and sex but also to celebrity,
junk food and to alcohol. We now have widespread alcohol abuse and addiction beginning in adolescence. A
recent survey by the Schools Health Education Unit found that 4% of 12–13 year olds admitted to drinking 28
or more units of alcohol in the previous week (The Guardian 30 October 2011). This, I have no doubt, is
indicative of a much more widespread problem. Apart from anything else, the damage being done to these
young brains is catastrophic.
All these—attraction to violence, pornography and promiscuity, addiction—are aspects of the same reality:
a “me” culture of entitlement but no responsibility, where anything goes and pleasure, instant gratification, and
self-interest are the gods. If there’s immediate personal gain in it, then it’s good. It is that culture which gave
rise to the summer riots. They were not about anger or deprivation or inequality. They were born of this. If
people, young or otherwise, live in this culture, feeding themselves with its toxic by-products, then it should
be no surprise that their behavior is of such a low order and that elements of our society are “sick”.
Goodness is no longer an aspiration for too many because, I would suggest, everything that they “consume”
confirms the message that immorality and even evil are to be revered. Increasingly, the darker side of life is
favoured across the board—in music, in film, in comedy etc. Indeed, a whole portion of the year is now given
over to the celebration of “darkness” and all its manifestations in the aggressive commercial promotion of
Halloween. “Harmless fun” some might say, but the fact is that the message is being sold to very young
children that the dark side is what we love.
It is good to live in a tolerant and free society but not a boundary-less one which is allowed, through neglect,
to become amoral. It used to be that the Church was the guardian of society but it no longer has that role. We
can let it fall to no one and continue to watch a civilized society destroy itself. Or, Government can take
responsibility. Society, in some parts of it, is a corrupted child run wild. When a child has no boundaries, a
responsible carer puts them in place. At first there is great resistance but, in time, those in their care will thrive.
To this end, there needs to be a total review of censorship and the limits we must place on our freedoms.
My suggestions, though not thought through in detail at this stage, would be that all films and video games
that show extreme violence and terrorism are simply banned. The whole censorship system needs adjusting so
that a current 15 is the new 18, 12 is 15 and so forth. Pornographic content and profanity in music videos and
music should be banned from general release, and an automatic barrier on adult material should be the default
setting on all computers so that adults have to opt in by choice. It might be that these things continue to
circulate “underground” as it were but at least we would spare most of our children from exposure to this
damaging material. Perhaps it is time too to raise the alcohol age limit to 21 and restore restricted opening
hours.