A Killer Robot from the Future is Concerned about Violent Video Games.

If you have not been following the Schwarzenegger v. EMA/Brown v. EMA case that is about to get a ruling this Monday in the United States, then you should turn your attention to Patrick Klepek’s coverage of it over on Giant Bomb. The general gist of the case is this: people are upset about kids playing violent games (understandable), and the Californian state government feels that they can raise your kids better than you can (not so understandable). I am not going to get into any moral debates about this, those have already been had by people who know what they are talking about, but I do want to bring to the forefront something interesting that I noticed about this whole long road.

This whole idea about protecting kids from the evils of video games is very similar, and I mean VERY similar, to the same debate that rage on about music (heavy metal, punk rock, and the like) in the 1980s. While I do agree that an eight year old should not be playing Grand Theft Auto if they cannot handle it, I also think that if your child understands the basic concept of reality vs. fantasy (like my sister did as a child. She would sit in front of the TV when she was about three or so, and would watch Terminator 2 from start to finish), then there should be no problem in what games your child plays. The video game industry has the ESRB and other ratings boards to rate the content of games, and there are already laws in place about selling mature rated games to minors, so what is all the fuss about? If Hollywood is able to rate their films, and enforce their own set of rules, why can policy makers not let the games industry do the same? It is just like art, movies, and music before it; video games are the new evil that the older generations do not, and will never try to understand.

It also bothers me that some people are content to let those in power (be it provincial, state, or federal levels of government) tell them how to deal with their own children. Sure we have to make sure that the media are kids are taking in is appropriate for them (since each child being a unique individual), but that should be the responsibility of parents and not of policy makers.

Let us hope that level heads prevail here, and the governments of the world stop trying to raise everyone’s kids for them.