Legal Niches

China Continues War on Games with News Show

By John Keefer

China's state-run news organization continued the country's assault on videogames last week with a special feature entitled "Confession of a Murderer -- Focus on Pornography and Violence in Online Games (Part Two)."

The latest "expose," as reported by Yahoo News, showed a report from a Chinese prison where a mass murderer confessed that online games made him do it. The statistics in the show reported that 80 percent of violent criminals became violent because of their exposure to online games.

Murder has now been added to the list of ills caused by games, joining teenage pregnancy and drug addiction, according to reports aired this month by China Central Television. Other reports:

Chinese state media have long criticized online games. The last installment of the CCTV series told the story of a 14-year-old girl purportedly influenced by an online dancing game to start having sex with people she met online. The game, called "Audition," was said to encourage one-night stands and the girl to have had two abortions.

CCTV this month also aired a report on teenagers who became addicted to cough medicine and then drugs like methamphetamine as a way to keep their energy up during all-night gaming marathons. The boys were said to spend their time in Internet cafes, which are often filled with chain-smoking young men using instant-messaging programs and playing online games.

The propaganda blitz coincides with China's continued attempts to rein in any activity that threatens the harmony of the state. Social network games and World of Warcraft have already gone head-to-head with China's regulatory agencies and have so far come out on the short end.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on December 28, 2009 (boomark / email).