Legal Niches

Tory Leader Takes Dig at Games

By pete_gallagher

In a wide-ranging interview with the Times Online, Iain Duncan Smith took a little time to make disparaging remarks about videogames.

Smith has long been obsessed with fixing what he terms today's 'broken society.'  His solutions included promoting the importance of marriage and implementing more taxation on alcohol and reversing 24-hour liquor licensing laws.

As a contributor to today's societal ills, Smith said about games:

We are driving children to lose their childhood, and some video games are incredibly violent, like Grand Theft Auto. They are meant to be 18 but nobody cares what it says on the label.

An article on Computer and Videogames took Smith to task for his comments, responding that the MPs voting for adopting the PEGI system obviously 'care' what's on a game's label. Also singled out for 'caring' were ELSPA, retailer GAME and a group of videogame publishers that attempt to keep inappropriate games out of the hands of younger gamers.

The CVG article also puts the onus on parents to police what their kids are playing:

But unless our politicians make sure parents 'care' enough to say "no" - by backing Parliament's own legislation - we're fighting a losing battle.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on January 27, 2010 (boomark / email).