Violent Games Beaten To A Bloody Pulp In Report

[Rob McCow]

Video games could be forced to carry cinema-style age classifications, with tough penalties for retailers who sell them to children, under proposals in a new report to be published today.

The report by psychologist Tanya Byron will also recommend a massive education campaign to warn parents, teachers and childcarers of the risks of games and the Internet for children.

Dr Byron, best known for her work as child behaviour guru on TV shows Little Angels and House of Tiny Tearaways, was commissioned last year by Prime Minister Gordon Brown amid concern that new electronic forms of entertainment may be harming the development of children's moral value systems.

At present, only games showing sex or gross violence require an age rating from the British Board of Film Classification and less than 2% carry an 18 certificate.

A new legally-binding system could ensure that every game is rated in the same way as films - which are classed U (universal), PG (parental guidance), 12, 15 or 18 - with the age guidance printed clearly and prominently on its sleeve in a way that can be understood by parents who are not computer-savvy.

In my opinion, a BBFC style classification system for computer games is long overdue. Especially seeing as they are getting moderately realistic these days. Any game where you can beat people to death with a three foot long purple sex aid has got to cause concern for the nation's parents.

I'm a bit concerned about Brown's choice of celebrity specialist though. How much money did they pay her to state the moderately obvious?

I also don't believe that playing computer games increases violence in real life. People are either violent or not, regardless of their fragging high score in Tomb Raider.

[Si Hunt]

I don't think violence in computer games affects people in real life either - it never did me any harm playing "Double Dragon". And if you disagree with me I'll smash your face in.

Si.

[WhiteCrow]

You two sicken me ...

You missed out the most important thing about Dr Byron ...



She's a bit of a fox! I wouldn't mind getting her in my car and pulling over until my health level was back to normal. Then I'd have to let her out and put a cap in her ass to get my money back.

But no, I don't think there's a link between sex and violence and computer games.

[enzo1701]

There already is a BBFC game classification system. In fact Manhunt 2 was banned in the UK for several months by them before it finally being released.

Besides all this talk about people copying computer games is rubbish. If that was the case, everyone that played Pacman in the 80s would now sit in darkened rooms listening to repetitive music and eating pills....

Oh...

Seriously though. I don't see the problem with the current gaming industry. As long as they are being sold to the right audiences and being kept in place by the parents it's fine. Sadly though the people that allow kids to play games like Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt are the sort of sickos that would allow their kids to watch films like Hostel, Saw, etc anyway.

Personally, I love games of this ilk (horror, violent, etc) as I find them funny more than violent. The comment made in the first post: "Any game where you can beat people to death with a three foot long purple sex aid has got to cause concern for the nation's parents." I know the scene you're talking about and it's from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. When I saw this, I just burst out laughing - it was ludicrous (as is most of GTA violence).

My friend had an Xbox and allows their kid (6 years old) to play a lot of racing games on it. They asked if I had any car games and I said I had GTA: San Andreas but I would NOT recommend him playing it.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

The thing that annoys me most about this story is the way they're constantly called "video games", as if we're suddenly living in America now. That sort of garbage belongs in the trashcan.

As for the BBFC ratings, the point they seem to be making is that currently they only rate games as "18" or "not 18", rather than having the full spectrum of ratings that you have for films.

And it's all very well saying "as long as they are being monitored and sold to the right audiences", but this clearly isn't the case. Having said that, this clearly isn't the case with films either, and probably never has been since the invention of the home video recorder. I watched things like Alien(s), The Terminator, The Thing etc before I was into double figures. There's not really a lot of point spending money and time on a whole new classification scheme when you know that any kid who wants the games will get them anyway, so long as they have the money. Or just download cracked copies off the net.

Quite what my point is here, I really don't know.

[WhiteCrow]

After a hard day at work, there's nothing better than an ultra-violent computer game.

Actually I'm a bit alarmed that when I have a really bad day, I'll go on Grand Theft Auto or the Godfather, and go on a civilian killing spree. Though I'm not planning to emulate that as Grand Theft Auto: Bracknell quite yet.

[cullsoft]

I'm looking at my stacks of video games, and they already have cinema-style clarifications... at least of the 15 and 18 variety; when they don't, a number of them still have what I think is from the European ratings board, marking the recommended age and warnings (violence, language, horror, etc.) - something which I think is common on most games these days anyway.

Sounds to me like a large amount of money is going to be hurled at something they're not going to fix in a vain attempt to make it look like they're trying to do something about it... which is only going to bite them in the backside if and when it doesn't work.

[Phillip Culley]

To be honest it feels like a colossal waste of time - no matter how obvious age ratings are on a video game, it's not going to stop little 12-year old Jimmy shoving a copy of GTA in his mother's hands and begging her to get it. And 9 times out of 10 Mother will ignore the warnings and buy it for him (and no doubt complain afterwards to the Daily Mail about how the evil computer games are corrupting her little boy).

[Lord President]

I agree with the dildo scene in GTA:San Andreas, I nearly wet myself laughing.

I am looking forward to Grand Theft Auto: Somerset though, with death by Tractor, cricket bat and cider apple!