Germany Wants EU to Ban Violent Games 122
FredDC writes "Germany is seeking support among other European countries to ban violent videogames during its EU Presidency, according to Infoworld. In an initiative led by Franco Frattini, the European Justice commissioner, Germany is pushing for restrictions on the sale of games with violent content of any kind, from Half-Life to Star Trek . In the eyes of the EU, gaming and real-world violence is 'linked', and steps should be taken to prevent the purchase of these games by younger people. From the article: 'The German government said it will conduct a study of all the different national rules concerning video games, with a view to setting Union-wide norms. Its initiative makes the prospect of a ban much more likely. Video game violence became a hot political issue in Germany at the end of last year when 18-year-old Sebastian Bosse shot up a high school in Emsdetten, Germany, injuring 37 before fatally turning the gun on himself. Police said Bosse spent most of his waking hours playing Counter-Strike.'" This, just days after two Final Fantasy VII fans were arrested in connection with a series of killings.
In other news.... (Score:2, Insightful)
They should just ... (Score:2, Insightful)
They should just implement some kind of gun control. Yeah, that's the ticket; keep guns out of the hands of kids. Oh wait ...
Sucks for the EU =( (Score:3, Insightful)
It was going to happen somewhere. (Score:3, Insightful)
So every other EU HL gamer is also a murderer? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why in this modern age must popliticians treat entire continental populations like a kindergarten class? A statistically insignificant number of people are in the ven diagram overlap of violent videogame players and violent criminals so such games are banned for everyone? Talk about lazy legislation, so sorry it's easier to try and ruin it for everyone else instead of actually investigating the other motivations and causes that lead to these tragedies and maybe learning to diagnose and treat or prevent such violent behavior. This has all been said before, it will all be said again, just ranting to get it out of my system.
Re:It was going to happen somewhere. (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree entirely with your analysis of this news event. In fact I scrolled down specifically to see if there was a comment like this one already so I wouldn't be redundant.
It's quite telling that laws mandating so-called decency don't work and that repression seems to typically lead to inappropriate behavior. You tell priests they can't get married and either you attract or turn people into molesters. Try to keep your kids innocent of sexual reality (e.g. unisex religious schools) and they end up being, uh, promiscuous. And what about gun control laws in America? It's harder to get a gun now than it has been at any prior point in time, yet gun crime is generally trending upward and has been for a long time. None of this is actually working. It's almost as if when you push people, they react against you!
Every time I see kids treated like adults, they act like adults. Every time I see kids treated like kids, they act like kids. Oddly enough the maturity of their behavior tends to be pretty proportional to the trust you place in them, although obviously everyone is different and if you take anything too far, the results are negative. Brushing your teeth helps fight tooth decay, but you want to stop before your gums are bleeding all over the sink.
Problem with homicidal tendencies not games (Score:3, Insightful)
Final Fantasy VII?! (Score:3, Insightful)
They're calling Final Fantasy VII "Killerspiele" ("killer game") because two killers used aliases from the game.
They think the game inspired them to kill. How? Did they take turns?
Did someone translate the X-Play skit for "RPG Radiculopathy" [youtube.com] into German and leave out the humor?
No, not "Germany" (Score:3, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:They should just ... (Score:5, Insightful)
[T]he United States has the highest rates of childhood homicide, suicide, and firearm-related death among industrialized countries. ... The firearm-related homicide rate in the United States was nearly 16 times higher than that in all of the other countries combined (0.94 compared with 0.06); the firearm-related suicide rate was nearly 11 times higher (0.32 compared with 0.03); and the unintentional firearm-related death rate was nine times higher (0.36 compared with 0.04) Rates of Homicide, Suicide, and Firearm-Related Death Among Children -- 26 Industrialized Countries [cdc.gov] (1990-1995)
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Where firearms are tightly regulated, firearms are insignificant as a cause of death among children.
Re:Final Fantasy VII?! (Score:3, Insightful)
On an unrelated note, I'll try to raise public awareness of Gewaltliteratur ("violence literature"), which is a term I've invented for any kind of book in which someone kills any being without immediately being followed by a note by the author detailing that what that character did is wrong and that killing is bad. Such violent hate speech-filled books needs to be banned, all of them. Yes, including the Bible and all newspaper articles about executions.
Hey, if we ban video games containing death why allow literature containing it?