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UK Govt Plans Another Inquiry Into Violent Video Games

gamecheats.eu — UK Government has annunciated another probe into the effect of video games content, immediately following the already set out Byron Review.

Bury
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  • tucktan, on 12/07/2007, -4/+7lame
    • BeefBaron, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2These old fools have never picked up a video game and played, yet presume to tell everyone else what to do about them. Seems to be standard politician policy to govern over all they do not understand, what a failure of a governmental system.
    • WallyAnti, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1Very lame. Hence forth I will refer to the government as big daddy. Aparently that's what they are trying to be. If they're trying to get rid of violent media, they better start with hamlet, most of history class, ohh yeah and the Bible. People are going to be violent whether they see it portrayed or not.
      • Cyber_Akuma, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1Would that make us little sisters then?
    • triplehelix, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1lame maybe, but the i love the irony of the fact, that the story just below this one is, " Blood and Flying Body Parts for Ninja Gaiden II"
  • IamShipon1988, on 12/07/2007, -5/+7Games are violent how ever the sort of violence we see in the world in form of news, the movies or televesion doesnt bother govt ?
    • kronix2, on 12/07/2007, -2/+15It's became games aren't of interest to the average MP, or "old person". They enjoy their movies which feature violence and sex, but since they have no interest in video games, they're much more inclined to be authoritarian ***** on the issue of video games. We'll have to wait until our generation are in power until we can do away with this hysteria over violent video games.

      You know what seriously pisses me off? Parents who don't take responsibility for what their kids are playing. We don't need another inquiry or a debate, because it's already *illegal* to sell 18-rated and 15-rated games to those under 18 and 15 respectively. If your kid's playing a game which is rated above their age, you're an irresponsible parent.

      If you subsequently start a campaign against violent video games but you let your kid play 18-rated games in your own house, then you're a ***** retarded, irresponsible parent. That's what the mother of Stefan Pakeerah is. He, a 14-year-old who was murdered a few years ago in a violent attack. She blamed Manhunt for the death of her son, claiming that the murderer was obsessed with Manhunt. Guess what? That copy of Manhunt belonged to her son. She refuses to take responsibility for the fact that SHE ***** up by allowing her 14-year-old son to play an 18-rated game in her house. The police established and stressed that Manhunt had nothing to do with the death, but she still persists in blaming the game instead of blaming a psychopath and her own negligence as a parent.

      You see this everywhere. Political opportunists scream "won't somebody think of the children", despite the fact that the UK ratings system is statutory and the ratings system being extremely simple to follow. 18-rated movies like Saw and Hostel are fine and dandy, but the moment the killing and maiming is through the medium of video games, they're an abomination which are corrupting our children.

      By the way, ***** Keith Vaz. He's the British Jack Thompson. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Vaz#Campaigns
      • AntzNZ, on 12/07/2007, -6/+2"If your kid's playing a game which is rated above their age, you're an irresponsible parent." *****. But I agree with all the rest.
        • WesleyRiot, on 12/07/2007, -1/+5no that is rather irresponsible
        • kronix2, on 12/07/2007, -0/+5I'd like to correct myself: If you have a problem with your child playing violent 18-rated video games, yet can't exercise some degree of parental oversight on what your kid's playing, then you're an irresponsible, dumb parent. The government have laid down ratings and they're enforced through law, so it's your own responsibility if your kid manages to get hold of that game.

          Simply put, you can't bitch about violent video games if it's you who've failed to prevent your kid playing them.

          I don't think letting your kid play 18-rated games is irresponsible. If I had a teenage kid, I wouldn't have a problem with them playing GTA or Bully, just as I wouldn't have a problem with them watching The Godfather.
          • AntzNZ, on 12/07/2007, -0/+4I agree with you then, sorry for misunderstanding.
      • MadceltUK, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2The Steafn Pakeerah case is still misreported in the press and it pisses me off no end.
    • Ricky8765, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2I agree with Kronix, but what pisses me off even more is how much we censor nudity and sex, but gory violence is ok. Supposedly the more kids are exposed to sex the more likely they are to become sluts, teen mothers, get STDs, etc. but being exposed to massive amount of violence in movies and TV while growing up is A-OKAY. Kids can watch an action show with people getting killed 30 different ways with no reaction from their parents, but damn, you try to throw a breast in that same show and suddenly society blows up and goes after the FCC for allowing such vile images to be shown to children. "***** you FCC, how dare you show our children what their bodies will look like. How are we supposed to shield our children from the evils of sex and masturbation with perfectly normal anatomical images being shown to them?"

      IT'S OUR OWN GOD DAMNED ANATOMY PEOPLE! You are supposed to explore, understand and KNOW your own body! Kids are going to find out about sex sooner or later, as a parent you might want to explain it to them before a porno does...
      • chirox901, on 12/08/2007, -0/+1I agree. I always found it ironic that censoring any kind of revealing image in any form, be it art ("OMGZ, mah kidz lookin at nudez where nutin sexual is goin on at all11!1"), video-games, or even, occasionally, in textbooks is supposed to keep kids from having sex. I mean, the problem isn't in Michaelangelo's art, it's in your kid's pants. It's not like human beings don't develop genitalia until they see it in a video-game.
  • SteveKubrick, on 02/11/2008, -0/+25Don' worry the next generation of parents will be sensible enough to decide for themselves whether they want their kids to play certain games or not because the parents will have been playing them themselves...

    Can't wait to play GTA with my kids ;)
    • Roblodocus, on 12/07/2007, -0/+8I've always played violent games from an early age, I remember shouting my granddad over to my TV and saying "watch this fatality move granddad" he' watch as sub-zero ripped the head of sonya and walk away tutting. Non of my family minded and non of them mind what the younger members of my family now play. I haven't got a criminal record and neither have any of my siblings or any of their children. The government can suck my balls.
      • airbulb, on 12/07/2007, -12/+0Lots of people with personality disorders don't have criminal records.
        • objectcode, on 12/07/2007, -0/+4Thats kind of like saying lots of douche bags get buried. buried
    • Wacer, on 12/07/2007, -3/+1Ya right. Most parents are incapable of shielding their parents from all directions. Have you ever tried screening everything that a child receives in their everyday lives? I have tried and failed in some areas. If you shield it from your kids, the child picks it up from friends that don't have protective parents. I know that people on here are very against regulation of games, dirty and/or movies during the day, cussing, terrible radio stations playing 24/7 but it does have an effect on kids and that is after I work to filter most of it out from my own. Pac-man getting killed by a ghost is one thing, running around in another game trying to assassinate people with very graphic gore is another.
      I know it doesn't mean "You", because it doesn't manipulate you. OK. But it certainly manipulates the kid who walks into a mall and starts shooting people randomly so he can be famous before he meets his maker.
    • Murdats, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2I cant even remember how young I was when I was playing doom and wolfenstien, hell I was so young I barely remember the games themself (well except for doom, i played that through a few times on my phone not long back)
  • malekov, on 12/07/2007, -2/+10Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisiti... i mean, British Inquisition!!
  • capiCrimm, on 12/07/2007, -3/+22how about we have an inquiry into how war, political corruption, security states, school systems, advertisers, and the corporate status quo adversely affect the youth and their development?

    (admittedly, I'm American, so I'm trying to tailor to you Birts problems)
    • WesleyRiot, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2naw, those are serious issues. looking into those would make sense; thats not how government works.....
  • str3ama, on 12/07/2007, -0/+8I have to say that this is really annoying, movies can be violent - the news can be violent and that's all accepted. Art can be violent, religion can be violent - and those are both perfectly ok.

    Well gaming can definitely be art, take a look at some of these (http://www.cinegamr.uni.cc/index.php?act=Games) and tell me that they can't compare to what most would say is artistic and therefore socially allowed to be as violent or gratuitous as it wants without warranting any sort of inquiry.
    • plingboot, on 12/07/2007, -2/+1Movies can be violent, but there's slightly more control over.. or more effective control to whether kids get access to that content. Games is a different story, even with the same movie style classification I'll often see stupid parents buying their young kids an 18 rated game - why? well because its just a video game. and for some people games are for kids. They need to educate dumbass parents.

      • WesleyRiot, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1as blair once said, "education, education, education"
        • str3ama, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1@plingboot
          ESRB ratings - they give parents a very clear message of what's in the game that in many cases are overly critical of content in the game, compared to Movie ratings which can sometimes be very lenient (see Passion of the Christ - glorified violence anyone?)

          They're once again using video games as a scapegoat for social problems. No bad leadership or lack of parenting has nothing to do with it..it must be the video games..especially that Sims game that little Timmy loves to play..
  • racco, on 12/07/2007, -2/+9governments sure know how to wast time and money.

    next children wont be aloud to be taught history because its full of accounts of how horrible humans have been to each other.

    "i'm sorry class, we can't teach you about how life was like during world war 2 because we don't want to give you any ideas"

    ***** morons
  • Uaedaien, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2The government should but the hell out of our business. If you are 18 and what you do for entertainment doesn't harm others then its none of their business. They need to enforce the ratings rather than worry about the violence. Get parents to take some responsibility when they buy their 10 year old son gta for Xmas as its only a game.
    • Christbait, on 12/09/2007, -0/+1Exactly! They are just posturing and covering up for their lack of competence in enforcing the ratings.
  • Toxigen, on 12/07/2007, -1/+1It reads like its been hauled through crappy translation software the original article is much better:
    http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/ ...
  • ripple123, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2Damn Id like to do a govt funded study into video games. itd be all "Give me a million bucks to play violent video games". Good times.
  • anadirsitio, on 12/07/2007, -1/+0I there a corporate status quo adversely affect the youth? http://www.anadir-sitio.com/viajes-y-turismo/disco ... http://www.anadir-sitio.com/viajes-y-turismo/turis ...
  • Millsee, on 12/07/2007, -1/+4It's ok to have some ***** rapper on my tv giving it large to the kids, and advocating gun violence, so now average white kids are limping around England like they're from Compton and stabbing and shooting people - but hey, blame it on the xbox..

    YAWN.

  • madjackmcjock, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1Bloody hell. If they're so sensitive about violence then how about curbing the British economy's dependency on the arms trade?
  • breadfred, on 12/07/2007, -0/+4I wonder what does more damage to a child - there father going to a war coming home with unimageable scars, emotionally and maybe physically, or the playing of a video game. Now lets have an inquiry into that.
    • r3zonance, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1Soldiers are PAID to go to war. But let's not get all embroiled in that whole argument about the validity of the war.
  • marksweb, on 12/07/2007, -0/+4o noes not here now... if it was in the US i couldn't care less...

    but they're wasting my money on this crap...
    these things always end up the same. some boring old git whos just pissed off because he never had a games console as a child will complain that some recent murder happened because some guy happened to have played a video game at some point in his life. and quietly brush over the thousands of people like me that play video games every day.

    omfgz maybe i'll turn into a killer.
  • Ins0m, on 12/07/2007, -6/+0UK are a bunch of whiny bitches. They need to get with the program.
    • NeverOffside, on 12/07/2007, -1/+4the UK Government are a bunch of whiny bitches, not the UK. The general population of the UK couldn't give a *****.
    • Christbait, on 12/09/2007, -0/+1Yes, our government are what us Brits would call "Gone soft in the 'ed".

      If games in the UK go the same way as Germany and Australia (basically; banned or having to change to the color of blood to something retarded like Green) then I am ***** moving to some other country who do better things with taxpayer's cash.
  • cambob76, on 12/07/2007, -1/+1The games industry is bigger than Hollywood in terms of $$$. Nothing is going to happen. This is just political posturing.
    • r3zonance, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1Where are the figures to back that up? I think you'll find Hollywood is way bigger than the games industry will ever be.

      For starters 1 average film typical costs at least 10 times your average game development costs.
  • Supermunch, on 12/07/2007, -1/+3Two questions:
    1 - Will the US Army be asked to testify as their game "America's Army" is not only a first person shooter but is admittedly used as a recruiting tool for the real army where young men and women are trained to kill people?
    2 - Will a list of deathly violent games be made public before the next shopping season?
    • GonadHunter, on 12/07/2007, -0/+4I hope they give us a list, it would save me time making a shopping list.
    • Murdats, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1there is a big difference in mental state between playing and learning.
      its been shown in behaviour of all animals.
      eg. play fighting in cubs of any sort does not cause a cub to rip out its siblings throat. you only have to attend a lan to see that games dont equate reality, where in reality can hunting and killing each other cause closer social bonds?
  • NeverOffside, on 12/07/2007, -0/+3This is just about some civil servants wanting free games before Christmas.
  • DestroyFascism, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1Games are Violent! But they are reflections if not tiny itsy bitsy shadows of the crap people do to each other when employed by the Governments that make them do ***** for political gains and nothing more...
  • TheDiggerz, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2Well, It doesn't help that there are two rating systems in the UK; PEGI (voluntary age restrictions) and BBFC (compulsary age restrictions)

    On PEGI, even the slightest bit of violence gets the game a 16 or 18 rating, but anyone can still buy the game. BBFC can only be bought by people of the correct age, and the ratings are more realistic.

    Very few people know this, and I only know this because I actually read the fine print on an obscure wall in a game shop. How can parents make an informed decision about what games they should use to babysit their kids when they don't even know about the rating system. The video games are not harmful, the parents are by letting their kids play video games on their own instead of playing with them. You can see that this is true if you go on Halo 3, it's rated 15 however parent's still give them to young children who have adult xbox accounts and can communicate with everyone.
  • captbbq, on 12/07/2007, -0/+3This is getting absurd... My prediction is that in 20 years, the UK will consist of nothing but G rated media and all materials other than Nerf and Styrofoam will be banned for their potential to make sharp things to stab others with...
  • Lanefair, on 12/07/2007, -0/+0Two words, Jap-an. They've got the most violent derranged stuff you've ever seen in film/games etc and they seem ok.

    Also, if kids are inside playing violent games, at least they aren't outside playing violent games.
  • DarkDragon, on 12/07/2007, -0/+3Let's hope they take into account every gamer who hasn't brutally murdered someone.
  • m00nstone, on 12/07/2007, -1/+3They would be better off launching an inquiry into some of their own violent actions in the Middle East. Really, come on, this is a joke!
  • KingBunny, on 12/07/2007, -0/+3That was the lamest comic ever.
  • baldgye, on 12/07/2007, -1/+0if ur effected by video games then u shouldn't be allowed to walk the streets. i was raised as a small child on Doom, which at the time was rated 18, and as of yet I've not killed or maimed anyone (knowingly).
  • jlebrech, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2I havent ever seen adverts from the ratings bureau about the ratings on video games. They should inform the parents that buying 18 rated games for children is illegal, just like alcohol and tobacco. Unfortunately in the same manner if your child looks old enough he might be able to buy it.
  • DeFex, on 12/07/2007, -1/+2(c)Rap music with ignorant misogynist greed n guns culture could have nothing to do with violence, if you say so you must be a racist or maybe become a drive by victim. So lets just blame games instead thats nice and safe.
  • Murdats, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1the question is, if games are meant to be violent, why are there no inqueries into anime.
    even manhunt cant come close to a lot of the more twisted series out there.
  • offspring06, on 12/07/2007, -0/+2Treat video games the same as other media like television and movies.
  • DJSPin047, on 12/07/2007, -0/+1I like that
    this: "UK Govt Plans Another Inquiry Into Violent Video Games"
    is right before
    this :"Blood and Flying Body Parts for Ninja Gaiden II watch! ".
  • andrewpmk, on 12/08/2007, -0/+2An inquiry into violent video games is likely to result in banning them from adults. Banning video games from adults is censorship. No rational person is violent as a result of violent video games, and if they are violent and play violent video games they would probably be violent if they did not play those games. As for kids, it's the PARENT'S responsibility, not the STATE'S.
  • Eldavidos, on 12/09/2007, -0/+2I hate that my tax money is wasted on this sort of crap
  • Christbait, on 12/09/2007, -0/+1Utter waste of taxpayer's money. If these inquiries were fair they would find only complete nutters are going to go out and start killing people and that the levels of violence has never really changed in our societies during peace time, significantly over the past 4000 years, it's just amplified by the magnifying glass that is the media.
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