GTA V' came out and with it the controversy for video game violence
took another round. I couldn't stand still while watching all the
nonsense go public, so here is my take on why we're locking the wrong
guy.
1. Age Ratings – A Border With No Fence
 |
| Children vs. Age Ratings - Round 849 |
Every publisher rates their game according to it's contents. This is a guide to how old the consumer should be in order not to experience a negative impact from the product. There are associations that provide rating systems like the
British Board of Film Classification's (BBFC) or the
Pan European Game Information System (PEGI). According to the
BBFC, it's an offence to sell products against the ratings. However, in practice, there is almost no legal way to stop consumers of attaining a product, not recommended for their age.
This happens mainly because the law in the area of digital entertainment is shady. It defines almost no rules and has no control over what happens.
Why hasn't the government restructured the law to address the issue of children getting their hands on inappropriate material? Nobody knows...
However, there is fully detailed information in the web about every existing video game. There can be absolutely no excuse for being uninformed. Which brings us to our second point.
