Drug-dealing children ‘living in Playstation world’

Senior officer says crime is almost like a game to some teenagers as he warns of a ‘sea change’ in attitudes

CHILDREN as young as 13 are carrying knives and dealing drugs in an attempt to copy the brutal world of computer games, a senior police officer has warned. Acting Chief Insp Stuart Weaver from Suffolk Police said there had been a “sea change” in the extent to which teenagers were willing to commit violent offences, adding it was like they were “living in a Playstation world”.

Mr Weaver, who has been a police officer for 22 years, warned it was not just the big cities where serious gangrelated crime was taking place, but also in smaller towns and even rural communities. He said: “There’s been a sea change, probably over the last three or four years. We have seen a lot more involvement of youngsters in drugs.

“This goes right down to 13 to 14-year-olds upwards. What we are seeing on the streets is more of a propensity for young children to carry weapons. It seems to be the norm for some young children to carry a knife.

“There appears to be little understanding about the consequences of their actions.

“Sometimes it is almost like they are living in a Playstation world. It’s almost like some sort of game, until something happens.” It is not the first time a senior police officer has warned of the malign influence that violent computer games can have on the young.

In 2013, a leading murder squad detective at Scotland Yard, suggested some computer games were causing youngsters to “lose their grip on reality” and engage in acts of extreme violence.

Det Chief Insp John Mcfarlane, who helped solve more than 200 murders during his career, made the comments after a group of knife-wielding teenagers stabbed a schoolboy to death in front of commuters at the height of the rush-hour on Victoria station.

The attackers were all A-level students from respectable middle class families, but Mr Mcfarlane said they had been twisted by playing computer games.

He said: “People are playing games on computers in which people are getting stabbed and shot.

“Where is the real world? For them there is a blurring between the real world and those in the computer world. There was a blurring of the reality.”

Mr Weaver also said social media was being used to glamorise drug dealing and other gangster activities amongst the young.

He said: “We are seeing children being paid to purchase clothes. We see kids being given large amounts of money to deal drugs. It’s like what’s the point in doing well at school when they can earn the money drug dealing. ”

The comments come after a spate of stabbings in Suffolk in recent days left five people in hospital.