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UK government launches gaming industry review

Posted Oct 10, 2007 at 3:23AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: News, Titles Tags: ELSPA, Paul Jackson, UK

Possibly driven by media's focus on violence in video games, the UK government has launched a six months-long review on the gaming industry. Psychologist Tanya Byron will be heading the project, with the cooperation of UK's Entertainment and Leisure Software Publisher's Association (Elspa).

Although Elspa will lend a hand to the reviewing effort, its chairman Paul Jackson still has some misgivings about the project, saying:

I think the video games industry is this year's whipping boy. Too often we are blamed for everything from obesity to youth violence it is just not true and it's not appropriate. We are a very important British industry and we are very responsible keen to ensure that our products are only played by those who they are designed for.

Margaret Robinson, former editor of Edge Magazine believes that there's no more need for legislation against the gaming industry, saying that it holds higher standards that the film industry. "This is a solved problem," she said.

Nevertheless, the leading figures of gaming have positive outlook on what the review will yield. Said Jackson:

We feel quite positively about this review. It's clear the review is about making sure parents are properly informed about what their youngsters are playing and what they are accessing on the internet.

Via BBC

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First, a disclaimer: wick_insider, this is merely an attempt to make a point. Keep your flaming and other h o m o s e x u a l comments out of this post!

Ok, here's what i wanted to say: while yes, technically it is the parents' fault, we also have to realize that we can't always blame them. I mean, think about it. If a parent dares to slap his child when the child is being rude or whatnot, the parent would get in trouble with the CPS. Now, the child knows that he's invincible, and can go do whatever he wants. Sure, he might get grounded, but what's gonna happen if he ignores the rules? Since he can't get slapped, he'll just get "even more grounded"... etc.

Now, let's say eventually he gets so bad that he gets into drugs. The parent has three choices:

a. slap some sense into the child (not allowed)

b. tell the cops (oh wow, 1 day in jail... that's SO gonna help! oh, and CPS will blame the parent for not doing anything to stop the child from drugging up, ironically)

c. do nothing (unfortunately, many parents are forced to do this)

Now, don't get me wrong. I bet that good parents often have better children... But, in some instances, children just happen to make friends with the wrong kids - kids who force the children to turn against their parents. These same kids will eventually become violent, and if they commit a murder and happen to have a video game or a movie, or a TV in their possession, then their entertainment will get the blame. Or, the parents. But, like I said, in most instances, I believe the problem is that the parents aren't allowed to discipline their children (slapping them around when they're bad can really let them know who's in charge. Speaking of which, slappy teachers should make a comeback. Then, we'll see huge grade increases!), so parents can't be blamed. And more often than not, the peer pack mentality is what causes kids to go crazy. Trust me, I know: I was victimized by them often when I was younger (until I learned me some Tae Kwon Do :P)

# No use... — JaXeRiR 2007-10-10 05:51

...It's not like there hasn't been any violence before video games... There are just some very sick people who don't know they're mentally sick who play like GTAs and after that go out hunting people. I'm not afraid that my neighbour will come to our front door with a sub-machine gun tonight.

Remember; if books would've been invented after video games everyone would be blaming them instead.

# @iamback — [Juice] 2007-10-10 06:19

Dont slap the kids. Whip the kids. If you raise teach them that you don't take any bull***** from day one they'll grow up to respect their parents. I did and I turned out fine (18) that "child learns he's invincible" crap is just a bad parenting excuse. Grounding is just stupid and is basically asking your kids to break the rules.

Only the parents that shouldn't have kids (like a lot of whiteys) think they're forced to do nothing. Bottom line it comes down to the way the child was brought up. You can never blame Video Games, Music, TV or movies alone.

# kids are out of control — nuffsaid 2007-10-10 07:36

i do agree with you iamback, there is two problems the government which is not helping matters (violence crime has got up a lot) and the parents, look at tv shows with out of control kids, then look at the parents there either the same as the kids or just say "i cant handle them".

just now i have come back from the local chippy, when I went there, there was some sort of arguement with two kids (looked about 14) and the owner of the shop. One of the kids throw a coke can at the owners head, the owner tried to push the kids out of his shop, the kids shouted out "dont f*cking touch me you c*nt or Ill sue you". -lovely :-/

# Well — Gamoc 2007-10-10 08:19

We can all agree that video games are not to blame - they have age ratings for a reason, it's not the developer's fault the kids play the games, it's the idiot who lets them.

Despite that, a game wouldn't make a child violent. I've been playing video games since I was 5 or so and the Playstation came out (Tekken, for example) (I'm 17 now), but I'm not violent at all. In fact, I avoid violence, because there's no point getting arrested just because some idiot thinks he's cool because he can fling his fists around a bit.

If children aren't disciplined, they will get out of control. It's the upbringing that people are forced to do now, since they can't spank their children, they ground them, which doesn't work. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this is the sole reason behind it, but it must be a part of it. I was hit when I did something bad enough as a child, I don't remember it really, and as I've already said, I'm not violent at all.

Child beating and child punishment-spanking are different things. Beating has no reason, just a sadistic bastard of a parent, whereas the punishment WILL stop the child doing whatever they did. Beating should be stopped, spanking should not.

So the reason why children can be so out of hand is their upbringing. Their environment too, I suppose, mixing with children who are bad will make the child bad, obviously, but a parent who stops the child doing bad things when they do it first will stop that anyway.

It's not the games the kids play, it's how the parents raise them.

# yep.. — nuffsaid 2007-10-10 09:51

kids need boundaries, what happens to kids with no boundaries?

well in the UK recently two 14 year old boys was sent to jail for picking on a blind man and killing him for no reason other than just for kicks... Sick bast*rds

# exactly — iamback(unregistered) 2007-10-10 09:57

I knew of some poor people who owned a shop and just barely got by everyday. One day, a teenager threw an egg at the lady's eye. The husband grabbed the child by the shoulder and escorted him home to talk to his parents. And guess what the parents said after the husband said what he did to his wife? "How dare you touch my child. Get your #$%@ hands off him before I sue you!"...

Imagine. The child attacks and potentially blinds someone, and the mother is DEFENDING the child... I guess this goes against my previous post (about parents not being at fault), but what can I say, some parents are just c()nts.

Oh, and the lady had to pay for her medical bills herself, because the perpetrator was "only a teenager"/minor.

Hmm... I believe this is a perfect example of us not punishing the children enough. Seriously, next thing I know, they'll legalize murder (as long as you're under 18).

# well — iamback(unregistered) 2007-10-10 10:02

Well, I'm not gonna say I completely agree with you on the "whitey" issue, but I see what you mean. Many "average middle class anglo saxon" parents do seem to be too docile to their children. But then again, oftentimes that works well as an approach. Sure, if you offer too much love to your kids, you'll get the average pompuos cheerleader / athlete; but then again, if you ignore your children too much, you get the average druggy / slut / bully (although some bullies do their bullying because they know their parents will intercede for them if they get caught, as was too often the case for me. As in, I got bullied but their parents always managed to sweet talk the principals and whatnot. Dam|\| hippy laws). Anyhow, I was going to put Goths in the list of deprived people, but then I remembered Dax was a goth... lol, don't want to have that guy on my bad side ;P Last I heard, he bricked Daniel Seraphin's @$$

# agreed! — iamback(unregistered) 2007-10-10 10:16

You're absolutely correct! I've been playing games since I was in 2nd grade. I started playing mortal kombat when I was only in 3rd grade, I think. And too date, I don't recall throwing a har***** at somebody, and yelling, "GET OVER HERE!", or decapitating someone while dressed in a blue ninja suit. Although, later on I did take tae kwon do, but I don't think that had much to do with Mortal Kombat

I myself am a pacifist to the extreme. It might be that maybe I'm a coward, but I don't know... When I see a fight coming, I'll try to avoid it (unless it's a flame war ;P Bring it on, wicked_insider! heh heh, just kidding). However, like I said, I'm really not sure whether it's because maybe subconsciously I'm afraid of losing the fight? Or maybe it really is because I simply don't like fighting?

Either way, I agree: child whipping is absolutely correct, as long as done correctly. For example, I've known parents that were just whipping fanatics (though not beaters). For example, I recall a parent who yelled to his child, "Make tea!!!", and the child immediately left and made the tea. When he came back, the father slapped his child and asked why he didn't put sugar in it. In cases like that, the parents are crazy. However, let's say the parent tells the child to not talk back, but he talks back anyway. In such a case, a little smack fixes the issue. But for not putting sugar in the tea? C'mon...

Also, I love this scenario... Admittedly, I'm not from a very "loving family", nor am I "white", though I'm american, so I'm not sure if the TV says the truth about this:

You know how on TV whenever the child says, "I hate you!" the parent suddenly goes silent and goes into depression and cries? Well, does that really happen in real life in the average family too? Will your parents really cry if you tell them you hate them?

See, the case with me is that my family hates each other. Literally everyone has a pretty high level of animostity towards one another (although we "get along" I oftentimes find that everyone else literally looks for ways to create problems. I mean, I could be sitting quietly somewhere, and the parents will ask a question that's obviously meant to create a problem if answered incorrectly. I'll answer it tactly, and another question will follow until they finally find a way to cause a problem). Basically, I hate them, and they hate me, and we all know it, so even if I were to say, "I hate you", they'd be like "No $hit, that's old news". So anyhow, just wondering, if you were to tell your parents you hate them, would they REALLY go all "boo hoo" and whatnot? Or is that just one of those "dysfunctional family" jokes seen only on sitcoms that don't really happen in real life. Dang... This has got to be the longest post in posting history!

--------------------------------------

http://stores.ebay.com

tell them resilient1 sent you!

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# thats is a might long post! — nuffsaid 2007-10-10 10:52

it is refreshing to read something with words what havnt been dumbed-down. -lol

btw I wonder why harpo*n is censored

# harp00n — iamback(unregistered) 2007-10-10 12:31

I think it either has to do with the word s p o o n,

or maybe the word p o o

Let me test:

p o o n turns into *****

s p o o n turns into s*****

and p o o turns into poo

Now, we just use process of elimination/mastermind to figure out the censorship.

# interesting — iamback(unregistered) 2007-10-10 12:35

Ok, I figured out why the word h a r p o o n was filtered out. Apparently, according to urbandictionary .com, a p o o n is another word for a female's, um, "hole".... Sorry, I couldn't think of any euphemisms that wouldn't be blocked... LOL, "hole"

# excellent... — nuffsaid 2007-10-10 14:26

I have a new word to use on people -lol

cheers

# denial!! — dexcaliber 2007-10-10 18:24

Paul Jackson and Margaret Robinson must be banging each other and getting paid for it by Rockstar. These two idiots are in complete denial.

hey Marg lets take a look at this thing you call a "solved problem"

# roar!!! — iamback(unregistered) 2007-10-11 05:40

i am teh Jack Thompson. Hear me roarzor!!! I agreez it with da Paul and da Margaret because I am old and senile! I am also a q u e e r!!! (

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