Business week is running a article about the lastest interent usage statistics from research conducted by the University of Southern California. An interesting side note of the study is that 21% of parents with internet access say their children are online too much. While they feel their kids are online to much, they also say that grades haven’t suffered as a result. BusinessWeek Story.
Dr. Vincent Mathews, professor of radiology at Indiana University School of Medicine has been studying the neurological affects that violent and non-violent video games can have on adolescents. “After playing a violent video game, these adolescents had an increased activity in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal,” Mathews said. “At the same time, they had decreases in activity in parts of the brain which are involved in self-control,” he added.
Bill O’Reilly had some rather harsh words for Gamers, iPod owners and technology in general:
“American society is changing for the worse because of the machines… In the past to flee the real world people usually chose drugs or alcohol… now you don’t have to do that, Now all you have to do is have enough money to buy a machine…”
“Basically what you have is a large portion of the population, mostly younger people under the age of 45, who don’t deal with reality - ever. So they don’t know what day it is; they don’t know temperature it is; they don’t know what their neighbor looks like. They don’t know anything… because they are constantly diverted by a machine. Now what this does is it takes a person away from reality because they’ve created their own reality…”
At first O’Reilly’s comments seem a little extreme… and i think for a vast majority of the people out there it is. But I have to admit, I have some friends who are addicted to video games (World of Warcraft *cough cough*). And it really does replace reality for them. So while I wouldn’t go around accusing the general public, I so agree that it does happen to some people.
Here we go again: “Leading German lawmakers demanded a crackdown on violent computer and simulated war games on Tuesday over concerns that they may have helped inspire a young man to attack his former school with guns and explosives.”
Once again video games get blamed for someones actions. Read the Full Story.
Joystiq is running another summary history of video game legislation.
I just ran across this today. Family Media Guide has a rather good summary of recent video game related legislation. It’s a good guide to catch you up on all the latest political going ons.
Well, it happened. Lookout. HB1381 has been signed into law in Louisiana, hereby baring the sale of video games to minors and attaching a $100 - $2,000 penalty with prison time.
Of course Jack Thompson had to chime in on the whole thing. “The corrupted and corrupting video game industry will, of course, challenge this law once it is signed by Governor Blanco. The reason is that this industry, through the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), its developers’ lobbyist, the ESA (Entertainment Software Association), and the retailers’ lobbyist, IEMA (Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association) are involved in ongoing fraudulent conduct in marketing video games that contain adult material to children.”
The ESA and EMA have already both announced that they will file suit against the bill (Entertainment Software Association and Entertainment Merchants Association if your behind on your acronyms.). Doug Lowenstein, President of the ESA stated that, “We are confident this bill will be found unconstitutional, as have similar statutes in other states”.
Lowenstein continued: “This bill is an unnecessary effort… Both parents and industry are working together to ensure that video games are purchased responsibly. The Federal Government has found that parents are involved in game purchases more than eight out of ten times. Retailers already have increasingly effective carding programs in place to prevent the sale of Mature or Adult Only games to minors. Legislators know full well that this bill is destined to meet the same fate as other failed efforts to ban video game sales.”
Interestingly: “HB 1381 also directly undermines efforts legislators started after enactment of tax credit legislation less than a year ago designed to lure video game development and production to Louisiana to generate needed high-paying technology jobs,” noted Lowenstein. “Signing this bill into law would no doubt hurt the state’s economy, essentially hanging up a ‘Stay Out of Louisiana’ sign on the state’s borders for video game companies.” Guess they need to make up their minds.
So many games could be classified as “violent” if you stretched it. I wonder what this will mean for video games stores such as Game Stop and EB Games. Heck, even stores like Best Buy and CompUSA. “Yes we know you are 16 and can drive, but you need your parents to buy this video game for you.”
I just wish the government had better things to do then get into the censorship business. Doesn’t Louisiana have a city to be rebuilding?
The Federal Trade Commission today told a congressional subcommittee in Washington DC today that, although the video game industry has made progress in complying with and improving its self-regulatory policies on the marketing of violent video games, more needs to be done. The full statement from the FTC follows below.
Lydia Parnes, Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, told the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection that despite progress in limiting ads for M-rated games in popular teen media and nearly always providing rating information in advertising, “there remain a number of concerns relating to video games and how they are marketed.”
“Because the expressive content in video games has been considered protected speech under the First Amendment, there is a very narrow range of permissible government involvement with their advertising and marketing,” the testimony notes. “As the industry continues to produce games with increasingly explicit content, it becomes even more incumbent upon industry to enforce and enhance its self-regulatory guidelines governing marketing, and upon retailers to implement and enforce policies restricting children’s access to Mature-rated games.” The testimony also states that “the Commission will continue to monitor closely developments in the area and will initiate actions, such as the case challenging the marketing of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, when appropriate.”
The 2005 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey has been released. The report details statistics on risky teen activities like sex, drugs and drinking. Overall most risky behaviors have gone down. Seatbelt use is up dramatically, sexual activity is down, tobacco use is down and most illegal drug uses is down. A couple areas are going up: suicide and obesity.
June 1, 2006
Miami attorney Jack Thompson, Esq. is at it again. Mr. Thompson is a noted anti-video game activist. This time he is working with Rep. Roy Burrell (D) of Louisiana to pass a bill to restrict the sale of violent video games to minors in the state. The Louisiana House of Representatives has already approved the bill with a 102-0 vote.
Samples of the video game “Grand Theft Auto? were shown to the Louisiana Senate Judiciary committee. One clip showed characters attacking police officers and civilians with guns and a chainsaw. Another had sounds of sexual activity coming from a rocking vehicle, later with a scantily dressed women being thrown out of the vehicle.
“There are a lot of other scenes in the video we chose not to show in public,? Burrell told the committee. One scene awarded the player points for raping a woman.
Opponents of the measure, representatives of the Entertainment Software Association, said video games are like books, movies and television shows and are protected by First Amendment rights of expression.
It is interesting to note that this bill doesn’t try to define what “violence? is, and stays strangely vague. The main points of the bill are as follows: