Who is Angela Baker? [originaltext]M: I have with me in the studio today, Angela

M: I have with me in the studio today, Angela Baker, founding member of the pressure group arcade and writer of the recent controversial book Emma’s all right now. Angela, your book has been seen as criticizing computer games quite directly. Are these games really as bad as that?
W: I just want to make it clear, first of all, that I don’t see computer games themselves as the enemy that some people do. Most games can generally be played for up to 3 hours each day without causing any serious harm to the user.
M: But your book centres around some of the problems your daughter experienced that you claim were the result of playing a game called Bloodbath II.
W: Yes, and our experience agrees with the result of a recent report that playing for more than five hours can often result in the player developing severe emotional problems.
M: Yes, Hoffman and Lake have especially pointed to the increased aggression that can be seen in subjects. But doesn’t your book just say the same things but less scientifically?
W: Well, yes, but our book is a true story of real people’s experiences. Emma did become more aggressive but what is important is that she cut herself off from her friends and teachers by physically attacking them. So here was a normal healthy fifteen-year-old girl with no friend who the school refused to accept.
M: And how did you react at this point?
W: Well, of course I was very worried and I knew I had to do something. And looking back, perhaps I did the wrong thing.
M: That was when you destroyed her home computer.
W: Well, like I say, I was going out of my mind. She would just sit down and play and not speak to me. So, in the end, one day, I picked up the computer and threw it out of the window.
M: And that’s when Emma ran away from home?
W: Yes, she just walked out of the house right afterwards and I didn’t hear from her for three weeks. Next thing we heard, she was in a police station in Brighton. She telephoned us from there, and said she wanted to come home.
M: That must have been quite a difficult moment for you.
W: Well, yes, hut the important thing was that she was willing to talk and start sorting out her problems.
M: And is Emma all right now?
W: She’s a totally new person. She’s made up with her friends and started studying for her A-level again but more importantly she realized that Bloodbath II and other such games were responsible for ruining her friendship and her studies.
M: So she doesn’t play any more.
W: Well, naturally all computer games are right out of the question now, hut after a year or so I went out and got her a new computer to help her with her studies and I’m really delighted that now she can make positive use of computers.