Violence-Warning Labels for U.S. Video Games?

[Foxi4]

I would love to see this credible scientific study that proved beyond doubt that there is a link between violent behaviour and video games. So-far I've only read that if they do impact it then it is nothing compared to the influence the society and parents have. I suppose that in the U.S, graphic movies, books, news and so on and so forth have little impact on the viewer while graphic games are the spawn of hell.

 

[Seaking]

this actually reminds me about my crazy sister-inlaw.

i see no harm done if this was made into law, but if it raises prices on games i don't want it.

 

[RupeeClock]

Okay, here's why this is wrong
"WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior."

The thing is, the link itself may be SO insignificant that it could be a mere 0.1% link, opposed to something such as "WARNING: Smoking is linked to lung and mouth cancer", where the link is proven to be much stronger.
Your average person is in no way affected by exposure to violent media, interactive or not. The rare exception that results in tragedies cannot be blamed on the trigger in a person who was susceptible to violent media in of themselves.

The wording is also so vague that "aggressive behaviour" come range from a school shooting to a murder, to a misbehaving child throwing a temper tantrum.

What's more is that if these studies that show the link are government funded, we run the risk that these scientific results are biased to produce desirable data for a cause, instead of actually retrieving the truth. It has happened many times before for personal profit.

How far are they willing to take these warnings however, will they start forcing gruesome images of the negative consequences of smoking playing video games, too?
One last thing to consider. This will have zero impact on the online distribution of software, it at best will only ugly up the boxes on store shelves that'll discourage parents from buying these for their underaged children. Rightfully they should, but they'll be doing it on misconceptions.

 

[boktor666]

*sigh* more pointlessness...

 

[The Catboy]

I think this is more the parents fault, then again we live in American when everything other than bad parenting is to blame.
If you buy your kid an M game, which at every store and on the case is clearly labeled, and clerk asks for your ID when you buy the game, it's your fault that your kid is stupid. End of story.

 

[Thesolcity]

I think this is more the parents fault, then again we live in American when everything other than bad parenting is to blame.
If you buy your kid an M game, which at every store and on the case is clearly labeled, and clerk asks for your ID when you buy the game, it's your fault that you're stupid. End of story.

FTFY

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[Hyro-Sama]

Maybe I'll be okay with this if U.S. Gov't officials stop watching porn.

@[member='The Catboy']: Amen. Parents are so absent these days.

 

[RupeeClock]

I think this is more the parents fault, then again we live in American when everything other than bad parenting is to blame.
If you buy your kid an M game, which at every store and on the case is clearly labeled, and clerk asks for your ID when you buy the game, it's your fault that you're stupid. End of story.

FTFY

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[The Catboy]

The only real reason I am upset with this is because it doesn't accomplish anything. They didn't have a rating system, so they made one, people weren't enforcing it, so now they are enforcing, now they are this? Is this really going to stop stupid parents from buying violent video games for their kids? Well look at the past results and answer that question for yourself.
And I say stupid parents because these are the people who protested for these laws, then just ignore them and continue to buy their kids the same games they protested.

 

[kthnxshwn]

Maybe I'll be okay with this if U.S. Gov't officials stop watching porn.

This makes so little sense that I've just called your mother to apologize.

 

[Qtis]

Why can't they make it so that everything is understood without looking up a whole manual? "Hmm should I buy this game for my 10 year old?" *looks at the back* "HOLY...! There are like a ton of different images with meanings which I haven't got a clue.." Also true story almost every time I'm visiting a Gamestop and there are parents buying games (especially without the kids)..

 

[Schlupi]

THIS IS WHAT THE FUCKING ESRB RATING IS FOR


Okay. If that's the case, they should label cigarettes and alcohol with the following:

"Exposure to tobacco/alcohol is linked to addiction, depression, amazing sex, barfights, [censored], theft, sexual harassment, huge mistakes, and accidential contraction of AIDS."

 

[Foxi4]

THIS IS WHAT THE FUCKING ESRB RATING IS FOR


Okay. If that's the case, they should label cigarettes and alcohol with the following:

"Exposure to tobacco/alcohol is linked to addiction, depression, amazing sex, barfights, [censored], theft, sexual harassment, huge mistakes, and accidential contraction of AIDS."

Apart from addiction part which still applies to tobacco, I think you may be thinking of a different kind of plant that can be smoked.

 

[chartube12]

Here's a short history of the U.S rating system.

The ESRB rating was designed so parents can decide if their kid is mature enough for games. Flash forward a 5 years later, stores got sued because a teen played GTA and killed people. The parents passed the blame to the stores. So that made stores to decided to make M rated game purchase-able only by 18 and over costumers. Parents then knowing bought the M games for kids, Stores got sued again. Parents saying the stores knew games were violent because of the 18 and over rule but they (the parents) didn't. Now because of that all games now must now have a content label in addition to the rating, no matter how low the rating is.

 

[DeMoN]

Since when have warnings done any good? Case in point: Cigarettes.
Don't really care about what's printed on the box anyway.

 

[JPhantom]

i thought all that was proven was correlation not causation. until they have something to strongly support a causation theory there is no basis for this warning. I can see it now the industry gets massive profit because kids think it is cooler and the video game industry challenges the law getting lots of publicity for their games and gets it ruled unconstitutional as there was no basis for forcing them to put a label on the games and it damaged their sales because of the 2 parents who actually read the label

 

[Sora de Eclaune]

The government shouldn't have to put a violence warning on every game E and above. That would mean even games without violence would have a violence warning!

Is this such a bad thing? It might stop idiotic parents buying GTA, COD etc for their 12 year olds.

Parents who buy GTA and COD for their 12 years old kids probably are so idiotic, they would still buy those games even with big red Warnings attached to them anyway.

And then return the game a few hours later screaming about how there was nothing on the case that hinted that the game was violent in any way.

Why can't they make it so that everything is understood without looking up a whole manual? "Hmm should I buy this game for my 10 year old?" *looks at the back* "HOLY...! There are like a ton of different images with meanings which I haven't got a clue.." Also true story almost every time I'm visiting a Gamestop and there are parents buying games (especially without the kids)..

If you think that's bad, then listen to this:
I was once in the Gamestop in the next town over and was behind this irate mother while waiting in line to buy a game. She slams a game onto the counter with the force of a FUS RO DAH, actually causing the case to audibly crack somewhere. She leans on the counter and starts screaming things like "HOW COULD YOU LET MY CHILD BUY SUCH A FILTHY GAME?! I SHOULD SUE YOU FOR ENDANGERING MY CHILD!" I thought she was another idiotic GTA mother who had no idea about anything, until I took a peek at what game she was yelling about. It was freakin' Kirby's Epic Yarn! So I tap on the lady's shoulder and ask her, "Excuse me, ma'am, but what is so filthy about this game?" The woman growls at my face and goes "THAT KIRBY THING EATS EVERYTHING AND I DON'T WANT MY SON GETTING FAT LIKE YOU!" I sigh and roll my eyes, saying "In this game, Kirby is turned into yarn and cannot eat anything at all." The woman throws the game at me and screams "I DON'T WANT MY SON TO BECOME ANOREXIC!" I nearly slapped her before I decided to say "Bitch, if Kirby is fat or anorexic, then that tetris game you had as a kid must have turned you into a murderous fatass!" She left in a fit of rage and when the store clerk opened the nearly-broken case of that Kirby game, it turns out the woman had snapped the game in half.

The store clerk was so happy that I helped them out on their first day, they actually offered to pay for any game I wanted and even said they'd pay even if I didn't want them to.

And that's how I ended up getting a free game from Gamestop.

But that's an extreme case. We get some really bad loonies around here.

 

[DigiTak]

Yay more over protection!!! Hehehehe *giggle*.
Yep this is pointless. We already have a damn rating system, with reasons on the back of the box of a game. This will even probably make things a little worse for everybody, but make things a little better too. On one hand children will become angry their parents didn't buy them COD, or some other bland shooter, and on the other hand parents will become more protective, and shield there children, from what some children call shooting Nazi's fun. It's sort of a lose-win situation here, but I would rather have normal children in the future, than see a bunch of wackadoos become adults, and thinking these things are normal. Not saying this will happen but its one of the many possibilities of the Continuum Shift.

 

[1234turtles]

ok, but put warnings on tv shows, movies, books and other media that can contain violence as well.

 

[kthnxshwn]

This thread is pitiful, holy shit.