Mar 23 2005
A New Law Is Born:
A recent
bill was introduced in Washington that would make game publishers liable if a court decides that their game influenced the committing of a crime. Keep in mind that there are no similar laws in place for movies, or TV, books or magazine articles, or the Internet. Paintings and artwork are not liable for depicting violent acts. Only game publishers make the list.
Cultural Center Turns Cold:
Seattle, Washington has been a hot-bed for video game controversy in the last few years, with politicians running up red flags about video game violence and its effect on children. “Look out!” they shout, “There’s violence in games!” As a consequence, what you find is that in Seattle, at least, a city renowned for its cultural atmosphere, laws have been introduced that focus out video games over other forms of media as particularly harmful to children.
The Problems With Blaming Games For Violence:
You see all sorts of poor science claims about the negative consequences of games, even though courts have ruled that, when looked at with a critical eye, no one has established that video games negatively impact our children. What you see most of the time are reports that make false connections. For example, one points out that children addicted to video games are not developing school skills. The reason?
- Children who play games late into the night aren’t getting enough sleep.
- Kids that play games that require short attention spans are more likely to have short attention spans (duh).
Pointing Out the Obvious:
The media slant would suggest that video games are causing poor school skills, but it’s more likely that people with short attention spans are playing the types of games that cater to their interests. If something doesn’t hold your attention, you’re not going to play it. So sure, there is a correlation between people who play active games and people who are active, just as there is a correlation between active people and active sports. You wouldn’t expect someone with a lot of energy, who has a hard time sitting still, to spend hours playing solitaire, or even golf. You expect them to be playing high-energy sports, like baseball, basketball, or Dance Dance Revolution (sorta a sport). Yet people don’t point to football and say, “Ah, now we know why our kids have a hard time paying attention in school. This football thing breaks your attention up into short play-by-play increments.”
Lack of Sleep?
As for lack of sleep, that’s a problem with pretty much any activity that you thoroughly enjoy. The same argument can and is made about TV, or building model airplanes, or for that matter, doing homework late into the night. Do alarmist headlines like, “Computer game addicts fail in the classroom,” really represent the story? What about educational games that help students learn skills like math, problem solving, and reading? I’d argue that people who listen to short, three minute songs late into the night also fulfill the above criteria, but you won’t find, “Folk Music Addicts Fail in the Classroom,” screaming from the headline of your local newspaper anytime soon.
The Consequences to Our Industry:
Our industry is under attack, and this latest move, which doesn’t make games against the law but instead makes them guilty of an unproved causation, is probably far more threatening than any legislation yet to date. Legally, it’s easy to argue that video games are free speech, and thus protected by the 1st amendment of the United States from censorship. In that ring, the industry is on surer ground. In a civil court, though, the rules are different, and all you have to do is find sympathy instead of fact in order to win your case. And for some reason, sympathy seems to never be in short supply for people who want to blame video games for problems, regardless of lacking evidence suggesting that it’s true.
