December 19, 2007 (LPAC) -- The point made in the ongoing political campaign by the LaRouche organization with the new mass pamphlet, "Is the Devil in Your Laptop?" has received prominent backing from Christian Pfeiffer, former justice minister of the German state of Lower Saxony.

In an interview in today's issue of Frankfurter Allgemeine, Pfeiffer states that preliminary results from an ongoing long-term survey show a direct relationship between youth violence and playing of computer killer games. Although other factors have to come in to make a young person a killer in the real world, the fact that youth are slipping into the role of a killer--an assassin--on the computer, is a decisive factor, Pfeiffer states.

"Intensive computer-playing causes brutalization, a decrease of empathy. You don't react to the real suffering of victims--not with the same intensity, as if you were reading about brutality in a book, or watching it in a movie. The fact that you slip into the role of the killer, the torturer, the aggressor, alienates your own reaction," Pfeiffer charges. "Movies also carry a burden, indeed. But the strongest burden on children and juveniles is the active playing of violent games, because there, they enter the role of the murderer, the violent criminal. That is why they should stay away from it; instead they should make music, or do sports." Children have difficulties concentrating on learning at school. When coming from the computer, they encounter severe difficulties finding their way back to the real world. Therefore there should be a ban of such games for children," Pfeiffer demands. "What should be done for the youth, apart from the ban, is to offer music lessons or sports to the children after school hours in the afternoon," he added.