<<Print>>

An angry four-year-old boy shot his father dead after he refused to buy him a PlayStation. The Saudi Arabian youngster, from the southern Jizan area, grabbed his father's pistol and gunned him down. The child had reportedly asked his father to buy him a PlayStation and the shooting took place after the man returned home without the desired object. As he was undressing, the man put the weapon down, which the child then grabbed and fired at him from close range, the Asharq newspaper reported. The tragic incident will add fuel to the debate that playing violent video games makes youngsters aggressive and alters their perception of reality It also comes after a British teacher warned that children as young as four were hitting classmates as they re-enacted scenes from violent 18-rated games. Alison Sherratt, at Riddlesden St Mary�s Church of England Primary in Keighley, West Yorkshire, said pupils were increasingly 'hooked' on fantasy personas. This, she told the Association of Teachers and Lecturers conference, meant they were leading 'solitary lives'. Pupils regularly discussed 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, she said. And on one occasion she saw pupils throwing themselves from a play car in slow motion and pretending blood was spurting out of them.