Lets talk about video game censorship

So I'm writing a paper about.. that. I bet that all of us here are on the same of the fence, but I'd like to hear some of your guys' detailed opinions of the matter because you guys are super duper smart and I love you and you love me and I gotta stretch this out into 8 pages?

Should video games be considered an art, and subsequently protected under the first US amendment?

What effects do you believe violent video games have on children? Does the government have the right to control this?

What issue do you have with the bill that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors? With the ESRB in place, is this necessary? What underlying effects do you think this bill would have on the industry?

Should M-rated games be advertised on TV during the day?

Etc, just a couple of the main points that this issue emcompasses. 

Well, I'm not a US citizen, but as a critic and "scholar" of your society I will gladly take this apportunity to voice my opinion. No worries, there will be no calls for revolution.

I don't think games should be considered art, only because I think such considerations should be left to the induvidual and that it should have absolutely NOTHING to do with cencorship. I was under the understanding that the US had an Amendment in it's constution which granted everyone freedom of speech, not just artists. I also though the constitution protected journalists and media persons, but I don't really know the details.

If I were you I'd broaden the article about cencorship in all mediums, as I am fairly certain that a lot of what goes on in your country is against your own constitution, or at least sidesteps it. You can't say you have freedom of speech... BUT. You either have freedom of speech or you do not. You do not.

It may not be governmentally controlled cencorship. I think some of the cencorship for movies and games are private companies? But it's still up to the government to create laws which ensure that a company can't cencor people. If a game gets an AO rating in the US it's not sold by retailers, right? This is horrible, just horrible. First of all, no game should get that rating since it's another word for illegal. I don't think theres been any game which has been so bad a 17 year old can't deal with it and even if it was thats a reason to give it a higher rating, not to ban it as the AO rating affect has.

Many developers has to hold back to avoid the AO rating. This means that the US cencors games even for other countries. In Europe we have an 16+ and 18+ ratings. The 16+ is about T and the 18+ is M. There are no OMFG ADULTS ONLY OH NO **** rating here, yet games gets cencored so they can be sold everywhere.

I seem to be losing my train of thought here... I am fine with restricting the sale of games to children who aren't old enough, but it should be criminal to ban games because you don't like the content they have. Sure put clear labels on them, discuss how horrible they are, but never forget to celebrate the fact that in a free society we allow all ideas even the bad ones.

Making it criminal to sell games to minors is good, it's the only way to combat it. But if a parent wants to buy a game for it's child that parent should in no way be put in jail for doing so. Thats like jailing someone for letting their kids watch an R rated movie.

There should not be violent ads on TV programming intended to reach children, just like there should be smoking or alchohol ads for them.

The biggest problem I have with US cencorship is that they are severly biased and seems to be controlled by a religious conservative "elite" with a clear agenda on what should and should not be allowed. If a breast is shown then a movie gets an R rating, but a woman getting beat, killed or tortured mentally or physically is fine with them. The system is so messed up I believe it's beyond redemtion and it has far reaching affects across the globe as the cencors done in the US sets the baseline for the content we get over here as well, even if we have more sane restrictions on what is ok or not.

As for your paper... If it's graded by a teacher you know, write for him/her. If he is conservative or liberal, use that to your advantage, if it's a parent of young children, focus on the impact there. School isn't about voicing your opinion, it's about getting good grades. I'm not saying you should cencor yourself, that would be ironic, but always keep your audience in mind. Writing in favor of opinions you disagree with is fun. I do it all the time to get reactions and to bring out what others truly feel on a subject.

TL;DR:

I believe there needs to be stronger restrictions on the sale of videogames. The violence and excessive sex is hurting our children in more ways than we can imagine. The coming generations will be forever damaged by the current media unless we control both the content and distrubution of content properly.

We need to have clear labels on all games with detailed descriptions of whats in them, we need to force all buyers of videogames to register games with valid IDso we can ensure the protection of children. No one under the age of 18 should be allowed to purchase a game without a guardian present. The current trend of systematically destorying our children needs to end here.

So I'm writing a paper about.. thatNot-A-Stalker

Really?

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So I'm writing a paper about.. thatIronBass

Really?

[QUOTE="Not-A-Stalker"]

So I'm writing a paper about.. thatIronBass

Really?

What part of that statement do you trouble believing? :o

you don't have to be art to be protected by the first amendment.

I don't think there should be any legislation on mature video game sales to minors. it should be the business of the business, because a legal threat of fines by the state would take away the incentive to carry a game with risky content. stores would not risk having such product, and thus producers of the games would lose the incentive to make those games, generally speaking.

Should video games be considered an art, and subsequently protected under the first US amendment?

I try not to meddle with the whole 'game as art' argument - history has shown that collected minds alike have yet to agree on a concrete definition of the 3 letter a-word. Personally, claiming games as art seems nothing more than justification for the medium for those that feel ashamed about videogames as being some childish hobby or a non-legitimate medium. I feel as if games have found itself wedged somewhere between the 'arts' as well as sitting in and around the creative boundaries and processes that's design (which I feel is more appropriate to describe the games' content). Unfortunately im not in tune with US' amendment laws; but as an Australian--where games get refused cIassification due to a flaw in our cIassification system, and where Gears of War 2 & Splatterhouse can ironically be purchased by 15 year olds here--cIassifying games -as- art would certainly help bring attention to the issue to a fair share of our population, banning art here in Australia is actually politically incorrect.

What effects do you believe violent video games have on children? Does the government have the right to control this?

There is no conclusive evidence linking videogames and violent behaviour, it's just media and cultural attitudes that are fostering such stereotypes. http://au.gamespot.com/news/6284706.html. From what I know, games just do not present themselves all that persuasively, compared to say... films like Animal House or the whole N.W.A movement in Rap music. Surely Duke cant magically turn us into something mysoginistic, Bayonetta cant turn women into this Hypersexualised individual nor can Bulletstorms +500 +250 points pop-ups cause rape. Might want to check this: article: http://au.gamespot.com/features/6308543/index.html?tag=newsfeatures%3Btitle%3B1

The governments shouldnt have the right to control this. Rating systems are--and should be--guidelines, rather than set laws; If anything, it should be up the parents to educate themselves about content and control what their children play, there are parental locks and cIassifications there for a reason.

What issue do you have with the bill that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors? With the ESRB in place, is this necessary? What underlying effects do you think this bill would have on the industry?

It's definitely not necassary. If it is, places like Gamestop should be the ones under the real scrutiny for not enforcing the ESRB or whatever cIassfication that's in place within their business practice. If it means retailers may lose sales, then tough - they are the ones that are cutting corners to reap sales in the first place. Sometimes, restrictions can be naturally applied through other laws under a seperate service, say my 16 year old cousin cannot buy Steam games as he is not ellegible for a paypal nor a credit card by age restrictions.

Should M-rated games be advertised on TV during the day?

Yes, from my understanding (in my country at least) there is a seperate system for television advertising content - I've yet to see a videogame advertisment that is fully representitive of a games' graphic nature. AVP was almost axed here. but then it was released it got some air time in a light advertisment even during the day.

Not-A-Stalker

"Twin-Blades younger brother was something like 6 years old & had a thorough understanding of resource collecting & the terms associated (can't remember the exact terms but they were pretty big words, like, over 10 letters & stuff) with aspects of the game (Command & Conquer Generals). We can conclude from this that games can be very educational. Therefor let Twin-Blade play Mortal Kombat."

That's all I can really contribute right now.

I'm not going to tackle all those questions, but I'll respond to one in particular.

What effects do you believe violent video games have on children? Does the government have the right to control this?

Not-A-Stalker

There's actually a fantastic book on this issue that I'll go ahead and plug. Grand Theft Childhhod The Surprsing Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do. Lots of nice statistics, studies, and quotes from children (male and female) about why they play violent video games. There's also talk about the ERSB, whether games cause short term and long term aggression, etc.

Besides, having a book on your references looks nice, and it's a great read to boot.