Saudi Gazette JEDDAH: Angry Birds, a very popular game for smartphones, tablets and computers, teaches kids the culture of destroying and killing, according to a psychologist. The game, which has been downloaded more than 100 million times, is the number-one paid app in Saudi Arabia, England, the USA and numerous other countries, according to Rovio Mobile, which made the game. “This kind of game plays a vital role to create or form the violent and aggressive character of kids as well as guiding the player to like controlling and fighting other people in order to destroy and kill them,” said Misfer Al-Qahtani, a psychologist. In the game, players use a slingshot to launch birds to locations where they land and destroy buildings or structures in order to reach and kill green pigs, which have stolen the birds' eggs. The different-colored birds have different effects; the black one, which explodes when it lands, teaches how to destroy and kill at the same time, Al-Qahtani said. Five-year-old Yahya Mohammad usually spends between two to three hours daily playing the game. Mohammad said he does not use his father's phone to play this game because he warned him several times never to play it because he was too young. The boy proved to his father that he was clever enough to play it when he decided to use his uncle's smartphone to play Angry Birds. The game was released in 2009 by a company in Finland. “Although the language of my mobile is English, Yahya could play the game professionally after developing his understanding for it through practice,” said Yahya's uncle, who preferred not to give his name. One of the most important impacts of the game is that players imitate its behaviors without realizing their meanings, according to Al
