UK to Slap Cigarette-Style Warnings on Video Games
Imagine spotting a label on a video game that reads "Quitting Gaming Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health." Now stop imagining, because according to The Times, video games in the UK will shortly be forced to carry cigarette-style health warnings that "would have to be displayed prominently on all packaging materials, like health warnings on cigarettes, as well as on shop display cases."
Nope, not a plot for a new version of George Orwell's 1984. Not a hypothetical either -- apparently it's already in the works.
I like that the Times refers to the report behind the move as "in response to a growing moral panic," because that's certainly what it sounds like to me...not unlike the sort of moral panic playwright Arthur Miller was fingering in his anti-Mcarthyist polemic The Crucible. Is government legislation of video games the new international McCarthyism?
Everyone gets that the data on how games affect kids "in terms of learning and development" is inconclusive and hotly debated, right?
Now I don't have a problem with clinical psychologist and report author Tanya Byron when she says "You would not send your child to the pool without teaching them to swim, so why would you let them online without teaching them to manage the risks?" Of course you wouldn't. And you shouldn't let your underage kids play video games without rules, supervision, and paying attention to what they're playing.
But I'm getting sick and tired of the cultural double standard when it comes to established media. You know, the one that gives books like Anne Rice's The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty and movies like Saw IV a pass, when arguably less graphic games like Manhunt 2 are threatened with interdiction.
What's most infuriating, though, is the implied analogy between video games and cigarettes. Cigarettes cause lung cancer. Lung cancer. Don't tell me video games cause "psychological cancer." That it's games and not bad parenting that's to blame when some GTA-tweener goes on a real-life gun rampage and the parents can't be bothered to consider how their working two jobs a piece and leaving the kids unsupervised had anything to do with it.
UPDATE (3/27): Now that the report's out, it seems the "cigarette-style" labels The Times was referring to are in fact just the proposed BBFC ratings (on a game's front) with the PEGI ratings on the back. You can read my initial reaction to the report here.
Replay
Fearless or feckless? Have your say below or pelt me with emails here.
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I am a kid and I think this is absurd I have played games that are violent and I haven't even remotely thought of killing rampages. It is not the games it is not the games. What do you need to go on a shooting rampage? How bout a gun now how would you go on a rampage without one? you couldn't. For kids that get guns from their own house. Is that the games fault? No! its the parents fault. If you are scared about violence how about movies you can get rated R ones from itunes ot even free from sites on the internet! It isn't the games fault it's the kids and parents fault for not being responsible. Parents for not teaching their kids. Kids for not remembering its a GAME! In life shooting someone does kill them! I know that but thanks to people blaming video games kids can't paly some games because of it! GET SOME SENSE!
I couldn't agree more with the last comment. I'm also a kid, 14 in fact. If they choose to put these warnings on video games, then the same should be done to dvds,arcades and so on. I would even say that video games are much better for you then movies, or TV shows. When you play a video game you are learning skills in problemsolving,hand-eye cordination,and your having a really fun time! Well thats about all I have to say
GET SOME SENSE!
I was a kid once, and am now 19 working as a Design Engineer. I have been playing games going on 6 years now. Now how do people get away with saying that kids go nuts if they play violent games? I am very successful for my age and I have not ever thought about going out and murdering hundreds of people. people who try to understand videogames and the people that play them are hypocrits and retards. no one ever did anything because of a videogame and people need to understand that.
Since I'm the oldest that has posted so far, allow me to shed some wisdom on this issue. I've been gaming for 17 years. I'm quite possibly the least violent, angry, maladjusted person you'll ever meet with a strong sense of morality and all that garbage. I've never had the desire to do anything violent, and never will. Do you know why? It's because I do NOT have a preexisting mental disorder which causes me to take anything I see on a screen BEYOND THAT MEDIA. The kids committing acts of violence are messed up to begin with. You can't censor something because a small minority are adversely affected. If that were the case, we wouldn't have anything at all, because someone, somewhere will be adversely be affected by everything that exists. Quit trying to protect people from themselves. It's getting really goddamn annoying.
I have been gaming since I was 11 and as stated above I don't have any indication of going on a killing rampage. I think the biggest problem with all of this media is that everyone agrees with each other but are still arguing. From the game industry side I see everyone saying "Hey, our ratings work but parents and the general public is misinformed." From the political side of things I hear "Violent Video Games can cause major problems in children and minors so we need to enforce regulations. The majority of parents don't understand what the ratings system is so we need to force retailer regulation." You know what I get from this? I get that both sides agree parents don't understand ratings. I get both sides agree some of these games should not be played by minors. I get both sides agreeing that retailers for regulate the sale of R/M rated material to minors. Ok, so we are all in agreement why not do something like the ESA and educate instead of continuing the debate?
I think that there is WAY too much bias against video games these days. They ban games for being 'violent,' yet i can walk down to blockbuster and get black hawk down, the texas chainsaw massacre, and saw. Those aren't more violent than video games? Like you stated, its a parental matter. Sure they can keep them from playing GTA4, but when the parents then turn on a movie that has graphic murder, sex, and anything else 'bad' in it, there's a double standard.
And I'm entirely supportive of the PEGI over the BBFC. Detailed ratings are much more helpful for parents than a film rating, imho.
I remember back in the late 70's early 80's when everyone was up in arms about Dungeons & Dragons being evil and dangerous for people to play. (I don't remember ever rolling a 20 and slaying anyone with my sword when i played). I agree with above posters...1. There are usually pre-existing psychological problems when people go on thier rampages. 2. Parents need to pay attention to thier childs activities and become more educated about the rating systems currently in place.
It's a shame common sense isn't so common anymore.
U agree with the others here. This is totally absurd. The so-called experts were saying this about Ragtime music in 1900, Jazz in the 1920s, Rock and Roll, and now video games. I've been gaming since the late 1970s, and I have no desire to blow up people or drive like crazy.
The only people that are affected, if they are at all, are those that are a bit wacked in the first place. Then if they do something, they get a smart lawyer to find an excuse for it. The problem with today's society seems to be blaming other people for their own actions instead of taking responsibility.
As a smoker and a gamer and one who listens to explicit lyrics in music. I can guarantee it doesn't make any difference. I still smoke, I still play violent video games, and still listen to explicit lyrics in music. In the morning I wake up next to my wife, go to work at a successful corporation and do programming for a company who deals with EMS(Emergency Medical Services). Never at any point during the day do I feel violent beyond occasionally getting upset at someone for pulling dangerously in front of me in traffic.
Millions of people of people are just like me, and have never committed an act of violence.
I don't know weather to take this for what it is the written date is the 27 and the emails April 1st. So if its real what does this mean. that a person will have to show id to prove they are of smoking age before buying a game in which smoking is involved.
What a load of crap! What is it going to be next, an interview with the psychiatrist general, the legal gaming age?!?!?!?! What the hell are these numskulls smoking?!?!?!?! I'm 14 years old and love to play games like Halo and Crysis and I'm not a deranged serial killer. If all it takes is a video game to push you over then you had mental problems anyway.
I can't say anything that hasn't already been said over and over again: we can't let governments censor every aspect of life. I'm sick of politicians and 'moral police' laying such heavy blame on video games. How are they any different from films, television programs, etc? If anything, I've learned more relevant things in my life from video games than any other media, and they've never tempted me to lash out in real life. No rational person would think it. The simple answer: lazy parenting.
I for one intend to raise informed children who are only given information and tools appropriate for their age. When I feel they are mature enough to understand something, whether it's a game, a book, or a movie, then I will let them experience it, and be there to explain it.
Things need to be understood, not misunderstood. One Very Important Thought: "If you can be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you can be told what to say or think."
Remember Fox 'n' Friends' segment on the "SE"X-Box where they outlined how Mass Effect contained graphic sex? I think it's safe to say that all this paranoia is just propagated by the fact that mainstream media report on what attracts viewers, as opposed to what's important, and that parents are willing to watch/listen to any news regarding stuff that might harm their kids (see South Park: Cheesing. btw why the hell is nobody mad that kids like my little brother's 9-y/o friends are watching South Park?).