I am glad to see that the recent events in Norway isn’t prompting any knee-jerk reactions in banning violent video games. Although I dislike violent video games and would not want them in my house, I am not an advocate for banning them from the public. As much as I despise violence of any kind, I don’t believe that violent games causes violent outbursts.
Proper censorship classifications is a much better approach:
THE Australian government will not back away from new classifications for violent video games despite suggestions they might have played a part in the Norwegian horror, says Home Affairs Minister Brendan O’Connor.
State and federal attorneys-general last week ended years of debate and agreed to support an R18+ classification for video games, with the exception of NSW’s Greg Smith, who abstained.
Mr O’Connor has rejected calls for governments to reconsider their position after revelations that the man accused of carrying out the bomb and shooting attacks in Norway, Anders Breivik, was obsessed with violent video games.
“Because there’s a madman who has done just such atrocities in Norway, I don’t think means that we are going to close down film or the engagement with games,” he told ABC TV yesterday.
Mr O’Connor said that under the new R18+ classification, the 50 most popular adult games could no longer be played by 15-year-olds.
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