Picking a fight: Bully rekindles the debate over video games and school violence

The Boston Globe
Barbara Meltz
October 21, 2006

In Rockstar Games’ new video game, Bully, the “hero” is Jimmy Hopkins, a new kid at reform school. He stands up for nerds when he sees them being bullied. And although many anti-bullying programs do in fact encourage bystanders to interfere when someone is being bullied, this video game encourages escalating violence as the solution. Even after Jimmy gets a good grade on a test, his reward is firecrackers and stink bombs to build his arsenal for use against the bullies. In order to change the climate in a classroom, everyone needs to understand that aggressive behaviors are not acceptable. As Nancy Mullin of the Wellesley Centers for Women stated, “A lot of bullying happens because adults allow it to with their silence.”