German Politico Calls For Ban On Violent Games 61
GamePolitics reports that Germany's new coalition government wants to limit the development and production of violent games. From the article: "... Andreas Scheuer, a parliamentarian serving under the banner of the conservative Christian Social Union, told Der Spiegel that violent games 'have no place in Germany's bedrooms.' Scheuer added that parents must be responsible for what their children play, but that the German government could help less media-savvy parents by introducing a 'complete ban' on violent games. Along with movies, games are already subject to a rating process."
wow, talk about two-faced.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, they do (Score:3, Insightful)
Let me get this straight, no violent games in German bedrooms?
Guess we'll have to go back to playing scheisse games.
Guess what? How about the idea that the German government has no place in their citizens' bedrooms?
"Help" from the government (Score:3, Insightful)
So OK, let's pretend for a second that banning games would in fact help 'less media-savvy parents' as intended, have they even done any studies** to show that such parents are in the majority? Or is the German government just assuming that they know better than most parents and/or most German parents aren't media-aware enough to make these decisions themselves?
Let's face it, even if bans were the answer, no one has demonstrated that even a significant number of parents need this kind of help. And is it really helping society as a whole when the solution to help one set of people completely alienates another group, and leaves them with no choices? Let's hope this fails, and additionally (as unlikely as it is) our government pays attention and learns a lesson and so doesn't waste our time and money trying to implement something similar in the future as the violent games debate continues here in the US.
(Full disclosure: I tried to read the original article linked from the blog that the /. summary points to but it is blocked by websense, if I've made some wrong assumptions - particularly about ** - then please correct me.)
Re:Sour Grapes (Score:3, Insightful)
He should die a violent death.. (Score:2, Insightful)