Just read Ms Brown's response on the original thread; whilst I find some of what she says about controlling videogames a little too close, in language, to what some of these US legislators tend to spout, I am thankful that she at least talks a lot more sense about who is likely affected by violent videogames.

People like Jack Thompson place the blame wholly on videogames, whereas Ms Brown recognises that whilst a violent videogame might generate a violent response in some people, it is because they are almost certainly mentally unbalanced in the first place. The playing of violent videogames is a symptom of a pre-existing condition, unfortunately it tends to reinforce that condition. This is the point where parenting should come in, not the lawmakers, it should be up to the family and/or support groups/agencies to recognise that someone has a problem and help them deal with it.

I don't see hyped up calls to ban cars or alcohol, because a "few" people think they can mix the two; the response is either to help them, if they can be caught before causing injury, or to imprison them. Nor do I see calls, by Jack Thompson, to close down the "murder simulators" that are gun/rifle ranges, where people are often trained to fire weapons at human shaped targets

Trouble is, she still seems ready to single violent video games out as culprits, and uses her professional title to partially legitimize the scaremongering taking place.

Violence in video games is part of an overall trend in all media, its interactivity making it easy to single out, unfairly, I might add.

A little common sense goes a long way...if Junior is pulling the wings off flies and burning ants with a magnifying glass when hes not killing hookers in GTA, there may be cause for concern. If an otherwise well-adjusted lad pulls the same GTA nonsense, he may merely be indulging in some juvenile amusement. (personally I never thought it was that funny, but then I always though Warthog tricks in Halo were dumb too, but plenty of people were amused by them)

Now once you've eliminated video games as the prima facie cause, it becomes difficult to justify infringing upon the creators First Amendment (and similar) rights, as well as interfering in their ability to conduct their own buisness in a manner of their own choosing.

Now I understand the temptation, its probably a lot easier to complain about these companies and their products than attempt to get parents to take responsibility. But it isn't going to save any lives, or do anything about the actual problem, all it does is convince the gullible you're 'trying to do something about the problem'.

'Not MY kid' syndrome has killed more children than videogames ever will.

I'd like to see spong do an article on (how ludicrous it is) GTA as a sniper training regimen, interwiew some professional snipers, or better still trainers, ask the SAS (or whatever kind of HRT/SWAT lads you lot have over there) how effective they think it would be...ask them what the best sniping FPS is and why. It needs to be shown how ridiculous some of the statements there guys throw around are.