kids don't turn violent fron just violent videogames, give a little credit to our public schools

@Tristram

We already tried that tack. People apparently prefer to believe that violent media come about through some sort of chaste conception in which people's love of violence doesn't exist prior to the observation of said media. And in which the media fuels this love for violence through usage of the Force, mind-controlling people into violent little automatons, so that without the media violence would no longer exist in our psyches.

@Paul Kerton

I think he's just advocating an admission that media doesn't predate and directly cause violence, not for an abstention from violence. You know, accepting that even without video games and TV and music, there would be violence just because.

@monte

Well, see, now you're promoting the use of scientific method, so there are actual controls and comparisons permitting useful conclusions to be drawn, and that just can't be allowed. This way, instead of permitting real understanding of media effects, we just get something that lets the current raters feel like they're doing their jobs and the current parents (the ignorant ones, anyway) blindly continue in their assumptions.

Well, hopefully this will be a little braoder than that, but it is hard to see what actual benefit such discussion can promote when conducted in an other-media, other-influences vacuum like this.

@Pandralisk

You could try suing them for exposing children to inappropriate materials, but I think that might backfire. Unfortunately, I am of the opinion that most parents who would volunteer a particularly young child (3-7 in general, but some younger kids can handle mature themes whereas some older can't) for such a study would less likely "know their kid is mature enough to differentiate fantasy from reality" and more likely "not care what the kid does, as long as it's out of their hair", thus ensuring the child participants have the kind of familial background that would derange them a bit anyway. Hopefully I'm mistaken.

I assume the parents are okaying it, but honestly, I question the reproductive rights and parenting skill of almost anyone who would volunteer their six-year-old to play ManHunt II so we can see if it disturbs the kid. And although it would make more sense in a scientific pursuit of gaining some knowledge about different media's and activities' effects on children, I suspect most parents wouldn't agree to have their kid also watch Saw II, listen to KKK songs, and participate in a simulation of horrific and immoral violence that the kids think is real.

Unfortunately, I don't believe the reason for this disparity is a good one--the parents are probably so far deluded into thinking video games are for kids that they don't expect the vicious game to be inappropriate despite its rating, whereas they would never consent to exposing a child of that age to participation in similar versions of activities they deem more adult.

Again, I hope I'm wrong, and particularly hope that such studies focus more on high-violence games, movies, activities such as sports and non-physical competitions, books, and family interactions--scientifically observed and compared with the effects of non-violent versions--than the true gorefests.

I am not a Ukanian citizen, and I do not know the person's qualifications, but it seems quite odd that a TV Psychologist is involved in this. If Doctor Phill was asked to spear head a federalist review of the video game industry and its products, I wouldn't think much of his results one way or another...

UKaniers: who is this person, and why was she chosen? Is she just a mouth piece?

@Gavin Schmitt

A TV Psychologist who seems to appeal to mothers!

This is an example of Labours new Citizen Juries (or something like that) where they ask a bunch of unqualified people to come up with a piece of policy that will never see the light of day.

Typical Labour popularist bol**cks!

I personally don't trust the results of these "investigations" or experiments. Scientists are humans who are working for a living. Trying to put food on the table. It is inevitable that people will find the results that their funders want them to find. It gets worse the more interpretive the science in question gets. Ten bucks says these guys find there is a casual link. Another 10 bucks says the psychologists for the gaming industry find no such evidence. 10 more says that gamers will believe the one that says games are okay and anti-game nuts will believe the other.

As the BBC article says, the vast majority of gamers are adults, and the average age of a UK gamer is 28.

At least this study might go to show why some parents in the UK are stupid enough to buy games rated 15 and 18 for 8 or 9 year olds. This won't stop violent games being released, but it might help educate stupid parents from buying adult games for children. I wouldn't buy Cock Sluts 8 for a 10 year old, and I certainly wouldn't buy Manhunt for a child of the same age.

@Tristram
Unfortunately, now you're talking about something thats deeply ingrained within humanity. We've fought for thousands of years. Its something that will never alter.

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I think one of my heroes, Nemi, says it all...

http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/cartoons/nemi/nemi_1982_600x194.gif

Enjoy :)

@Anonymous

Yus.

'Dr Byron told BBC News 24: "The study will be about what industry is doing already to protect children..."'

Statements like this really irk me. It is not the responsibility of a game publisher/developer to 'protect teh childrens,' any more than it is the responsibility of a producer/director of a movie, or the author of a book to do so. Parenting, go look at a dictionary if you don't know what it means.


'Philip Oliver, chief executive of Blitz games, said more education was needed for parents.

"They aren't paying attention to the certificates. That is partly because they don't understand them and have a distorted image of games - that either they are harmless or totally evil." '

This needs to be said WAY more often. People other than the industry and its consumers need to start saying it too, maybe then someone would listen rather than dismissing it as propaganda.

@Shaesyco

For all the bad points, i'd still prefer a Totalitarian Government to what we have now. As long as it's Communist.

Chuma, the link's down.

From what the article says, this sounds a lot like the FTC report on media ratings was all about. From what I have read, they will be looking at the ratings and enforcement in the UK.

So I say go for it, but they really should include all rated media.

Great.

When will these idiots learn that we should not study the effects of games DESIGNED FOR ADULTS on CHILDREN?

The good news is that everyone can participate. I plan to contact her and I invite all of you to do the same in a civil and well-argumented manner.

You know, back to previous video game controversies years ago, we didn't always have a chance to express ourselves, despite the fact we were the first people concerned by these controversies. I think this Byron review is a great opportunity to make our voice heard.