Bulgarian psychologist warns digital violence and unchecked power may lead children to become killers

A Bulgarian psychologist links the escalation of digital violence and emotional neglect to the rise in youth violence, urging parents to monitor media and foster emotional conversations to prevent tragic outcomes.

A Bulgarian psychologist has linked the violent killing of Georgi Kuzev on Youth Hill in Plovdiv to children whose sense of boundaries has been warped by family influence and online stimulation. In an interview with Standart, Dani Borisova said such children seek attention on a godlike scale and can become convinced of their own invulnerability, a mindset she described as a form of dangerous grandiosity.

Borisova also argued that violent electronic games and constant exposure to screens can blur the line between fantasy and real life. That view echoes guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics’ HealthyChildren site, which says violent media can contribute to aggressive thoughts, feelings and actions in some children and stresses the value of parental monitoring and conversations about emotions and values. Research published in the medical and psychological literature has also examined how virtual environments may be used both to study offending behaviour and to test interventions, suggesting the technology itself can be a tool as well as a risk, depending on how it is used.

The psychologist said parents should pay closer attention to what children watch and play at home and should not rely on restriction alone. Instead, she said, adults need to talk through feelings, values and frustration before those emotions harden into destructive behaviour. Her comments come at a time when researchers are also exploring whether interactive virtual reality can help reduce aggression when combined with cognitive behavioural therapy, with one randomised trial finding the approach improved outcomes for children with behaviour problems.

At the same time, experts remain divided over how far virtual reality and other immersive technologies should go in clinical settings. A 2016 Stat article on the use of virtual reality in assessing sexual interests in offenders showed that such methods remain ethically contentious, while later reviews in PubMed have noted both their promise and their limits in diagnosis, risk assessment and treatment. In that wider debate, Borisova’s warning was blunt: when children are left with unchecked power, emotional neglect and a steady diet of digital violence, she said, some can slip into the role of executioner rather than victim.