Tired of his sons' obession with the violent "Call of Duty" first-person-shooter computer game, a father took both boys to Syria to show them what real gun warfare was like. 

It worked. 

Because of computer games' simulated reality where everything is virtual and a "kill" can be undone simply by rebooting, Swedish journalist and teacher Carl-Magnus Helgegren feared his sons were getting an unrealistic impression of what combat realities and consequences are.

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First reported at MailOnline.com, Helgegren took sons Leo, 11 and Frank, 10, to the Golan Heights, a region of Syria occupied by Israel that is part of the on-going conflict in the Middle East. The tour also included Israeli and Palestinian hospital wards where children even younger than the boys were recouperating from gunshot wounds. 

Recalling what he told his sons to reporter Jill Reilly, Helgegren said, "You don't see this in the game but this is what you can use a gun for. Guns are being pointed at children your own age."

Helgegren made the trip in April, before the current violence in northern Iraq destabilized the region even further. Upon their return to Sweden, Helgegren said his sons told him they no longer wanted to buy the game, and have been shocked by the recent fighting.

Because FPS computer games are reletively new, experts agree that studies linking violence associated with them are still in their infancy and show inconclusive results. In America, gun massacres in Newtown, CT, and Aurora, CO, were perpetrated by gunmen who played such games, but in both instances each shooter had standing mental conditions. Game programmers point out that thousands of people play such games and clearly draw the line between fantasy and reality.

"Not everyone has to go to Middle East to teach their children about war games," said Helgegren. "But why normalise guns for children. Everybody is playing them and they are part of our children's lives. Why are parents not making this a problem?"

TagsComputer games