Four-year-olds ‘re-enacting violent video games at school’

CHILDREN as young as four are hitting classmates as they re-enact scenes from violent 18-rated computer games, a teacher has revealed.

Parents are letting young children play on older siblings’ consoles or even buying the games for them, it was claimed.

But youngsters struggle to separate reality from their experiences in the virtual world and mimic the scenes at school.

They are also coming to lessons too tired to learn after staying up late playing computer games and falling asleep at their screens.

Many children are already ‘hooked’ on their fantasy personas in games, leading increasingly ‘solitary lives’ as a result.

The warning comes from Alison Sherratt, a reception class teacher at Riddlesden St Mary’s Church of England Primary in Keighley, West Yorkshire.

She is due to outline her concerns to the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers this week. Mrs Sherratt said pupils regularly discuss playing games such as the Call Of Duty series, set in various war zones, and Grand Theft Auto – where players carry out robberies, muggings, killings, drug deals and beat prostitutes with baseball bats.

On one occasion, Mrs Sherratt saw pupils throwing themselves from a play car in slow motion and pretending blood was spurting out of them.

Out of 27 children in her class, most have TVS and laptops in their bedrooms and most have use of – or personally own – a Playstation, Xbox or Wii console.

Mrs Sherratt insisted she did not wish them to be banned but is calling on her union to lobby the Government on the hazards of video games.

The warning came a day after news that 14-yearold Daniel Bartlam killed his mother with a claw hammer after watching a wide range of violent video games, films and TV storylines.