It is an ongoing question, whether it should be parents or the government that should regulate the kind of video games that kids buy and play.
Now the recently passed Californian law that bans sale of violent video games to minors and imposes fines for violators is attracting controversy and raising the following points:
- Jeffrey Toobin, a legal analyst thinks a law like this raised first amendment issues relating to freedom of speech. He claims that even movie rating is voluntary and set up by movie makers to prevent governmental regulation.
- According to Craig Anderson, professor Iowa State University playing violent video games increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior and thinking. He says it increases non-social behavior and desensitization. This has long term and short term implications and there is more likelihood of the child getting into fights at school. In short this has the same impact as violent movies and TV.
- The suggestion is that parents educate themselves about the impact these items can have on children.
- There is also the requirement to give parents the tools to take charge and better equipped to regulate the sort of media that their children use, which current rating systems do not do.
Source: The Atlantic Wire
