Tougher Video Game Rating System Coming?

The The Scotsman's sister paper, Scotland on Sunday, claims that the UK government is preparing to use the Byron Review, which is not officially published until next month, to introduce more stringent controls on video game content.

The report states, "Video games will get movie-style age ratings under a Government plan to tackle the growing fear that exposure to on-screen sex and violence is warping a generation of children".

This was then followed up by UK industry journal, MCV, which stated, "A Whitehall leak to Scotland On Sunday last week suggested that Brown was ready to introduce an aggressive ‘crackdown’ on violent video games in the wake of the Byron Review, which will recommend the introduction of BBFC ratings for all software titles when it is published next month".

An unnamed MCV source, who was inside a recent closed-door session chaired by Tanya Byron, is then quoted as saying, "It was pretty much agreed by all parties – publishing, retailers and parents and Government – that there needs to be one rating system for transparency’s sake, whether that be the BBFC or something more voluntary.

"But there’s a definite fear that (Prime Minister Gordon) Brown will aggressively present this to the media and public as ‘we are fighting the industry for your kids’ safety’. Nothing could be further from the truth, and Tanya Byron knows that".

We contacted the the press office for the Department for Children, Schools & Families - the government department overseeing the review - to get more information, and we were told, "There hasn’t been a leak. For background it was a PMQ (Prime Minister's Questions) that prompted the Scotland on Sunday story".

We were then referred to the response Gordon Brown made to Parliament on January 16th (reported here on SPOnG) in which Brown stated (in part), "It is right that we look again at the classification system for those games and at what is happening on the internet in influencing young children. That is why the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families has set up the Byron review, in which Dr. Tanya Byron is looking at these very issues."

Brown was responding to Leicester East MP (and longtime anti-game agitator), Keith Vaz, who precursed his question with the not at all weighted statement, "On Monday, the Prime Minister said that he was very worried about the content of video and computer games. Some of those games, such as Manhunt 2, depict scenes of torture and murder using hammers, knives and guns..."

So, we contacted Scotland on Sunday's Westminster editor, Jenny Percival - who wrote the original story - and asked her about the 'leak' and the detail of the story. Jenny explained that her story had indeed been kicked off with the PMQ from January 16th. She had then questioned - among others both within and without the industry - Keith Vaz. He spoke about about what he (and here's the key word) "expected" to see from the review when it is published in March - not what is in it.

Finally we were offered the official joint statement from the Department for Children, Schools & Families and Department for Culture Media and Sport in response to The Scotland on Sunday report.



As you would expect, absolutely nothing more than smoke and mirrors once again. Nothing is being considered in particular but nothing as been ruled out... until the report is made public. This publication date is, however, still a moveable feast floating around sometime in March.

Our sources within the industry tell us that the Byron Review process has been met with surprised approval. This is largely down to the good doctor's identifying issues not only from the point of a view of a government in need of something to blame for society's ills but from those of the UK video games industry and from gamers.

The problem for the report, however, is that the government (and opposition) requires something to blame for what Middle England sees as society falling apart at the seams. And let's face it - with the UK industry rapidly departing (with its revenues) to more creatively-friendly countries - the government can't look at more obvious targets; for example, mighty supermarket chains selling the wares of massive brewing concerns as loss leaders. Or vast amounts of cash being thrown at fighting wars on behalf of religious obsessives both at home and across the Atlantic?

^{Sources: The Scotsman
MCV}