Gaming Signal: EU to Game Industry: Clean Up!

EU to Game Industry: Clean Up!

Today the European Union's executive body elected not to impose new restrictions or penalties for offensive video games but instead decided to give the industry two years to clean itself up. There is an existing standard for rating games in Europe (similar to the ESRB rating used in the US) but it isn't widely followed and the EU wants to see that changed. The threat is that the EU might create some new laws instead of letting the industry police itself.

What was stated was that they wanted this despite there not being any evidence that violent video games impact children's behavior. An EU commissioner stated that parents were anxious because they don't know anything about the video games their children play.

Well, here's an idea - how about playing the game with them? Or watching the game being played? Or asking the kids about the game? Or asking somebody in the store before you buy it? Or looking for information on the internet? Oh no, that would take actual parenting work - instead we want a 'one size fits all' rating system and advisory board to fight with. Give me a single icon that explains it all without me having to think. Grrr!

An example used was the game Manhunt 2 where the violence was so great it couldn't get an M rating in the US without modifications and was banned in some European countries. Well shucks, I don't know about you but if my son wanted to play a game called Manhunt 2 I think I might just look into it a bit and see what it was all about before just letting him play. Heck, I even looked into Sega Superstars Tennis just to make sure it didn't feature naked tennis or folks going berserk and hacking peoples arms off with the rackets. It doesn't have either, I'm sad to say.