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Germany Wants EU to Ban Violent Games

Posted by Zonk on from the they'll-getcha dept.

FredDC writes "Germany is seeking support among other European countries to ban violent videogames during its EU Presidency, according to Infoworld. In an initiative led by Franco Frattini, the European Justice commissioner, Germany is pushing for restrictions on the sale of games with violent content of any kind, from Half-Life to Star Trek . In the eyes of the EU, gaming and real-world violence is 'linked', and steps should be taken to prevent the purchase of these games by younger people. From the article: 'The German government said it will conduct a study of all the different national rules concerning video games, with a view to setting Union-wide norms. Its initiative makes the prospect of a ban much more likely. Video game violence became a hot political issue in Germany at the end of last year when 18-year-old Sebastian Bosse shot up a high school in Emsdetten, Germany, injuring 37 before fatally turning the gun on himself. Police said Bosse spent most of his waking hours playing Counter-Strike.'" This, just days after two Final Fantasy VII fans were arrested in connection with a series of killings.

12 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. In other news.... by MicktheMech · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The rest of the west wants the United States to ban captial punishment. Not going to happen...

  2. They should just ... by Skapare · · Score: 1, Insightful

    They should just implement some kind of gun control. Yeah, that's the ticket; keep guns out of the hands of kids. Oh wait ...

    --
    now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
    1. Re:They should just ... by westlake · · Score: 4, Insightful
      They should just implement some kind of gun control. Yeah, that's the ticket; keep guns out of the hands of kids. Oh wait ...

      [T]he United States has the highest rates of childhood homicide, suicide, and firearm-related death among industrialized countries. ... The firearm-related homicide rate in the United States was nearly 16 times higher than that in all of the other countries combined (0.94 compared with 0.06); the firearm-related suicide rate was nearly 11 times higher (0.32 compared with 0.03); and the unintentional firearm-related death rate was nine times higher (0.36 compared with 0.04) Rates of Homicide, Suicide, and Firearm-Related Death Among Children -- 26 Industrialized Countries (1990-1995) ___ Where firearms are tightly regulated, firearms are insignificant as a cause of death among children.

  3. Sucks for the EU =( by spyder913 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They already have enough trouble getting stuff at the same time as the NA/Asian markets, and if this goes into effect, they'd be even worse off.

  4. It was going to happen somewhere. by Esc7 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I feel for Germany. As the country that was host to probably the greatest villain in the twentieth century there is going to be a lot of pressure to condemn things that could ever be even remotely like the horrible things that happened there during WWII. I say this is an overreaction, but it still makes sense in some way. After reading about this http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread .php?t=31767 story on slashdot earlier, and forcing myself to remember that Europe has its nudity/violence tolerance levels switched compared to America, I see this as a misguided, but inevitable event.

    1. Re:It was going to happen somewhere. by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I agree entirely with your analysis of this news event. In fact I scrolled down specifically to see if there was a comment like this one already so I wouldn't be redundant.

      It's quite telling that laws mandating so-called decency don't work and that repression seems to typically lead to inappropriate behavior. You tell priests they can't get married and either you attract or turn people into molesters. Try to keep your kids innocent of sexual reality (e.g. unisex religious schools) and they end up being, uh, promiscuous. And what about gun control laws in America? It's harder to get a gun now than it has been at any prior point in time, yet gun crime is generally trending upward and has been for a long time. None of this is actually working. It's almost as if when you push people, they react against you!

      Every time I see kids treated like adults, they act like adults. Every time I see kids treated like kids, they act like kids. Oddly enough the maturity of their behavior tends to be pretty proportional to the trust you place in them, although obviously everyone is different and if you take anything too far, the results are negative. Brushing your teeth helps fight tooth decay, but you want to stop before your gums are bleeding all over the sink.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:It was going to happen somewhere. by nightfire-unique · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Every time I see kids treated like adults, they act like adults. Every time I see kids treated like kids, they act like kids. Oddly enough the maturity of their behavior tends to be pretty proportional to the trust you place in them ...

      Agreed, 100%.

      The phrase monkey see, monkey do, cuts both ways. While growing up in a violent environment (not video games - that's fake; I mean real violent environments like warzones and gang violence prone urban zones) tends to produce violent kids, kids with good, strong role models tend to be more intelligent and responsible. Humans emulate. It's what we've evolved to do.

      Where it gets complicated, though, is determining: what is a good role model?

      Personally, I think the anti-game, anti-fun, anti-alcohol, anti-drug, anti-sex, anti-everything protect-you-at-any-cost soccer moms are terrible role models, because they perpetuate the "do as I say, because I'm better than you" creed. More often than not, it is rooted in hypocrisy. And that is more damaging than any video game could ever be.

      --
      A government is a body of people notably ungoverned - AC
  5. So every other EU HL gamer is also a murderer? by Jtheletter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think we're all pretty sick of the constant political campaigns against violent games. In every case it's someone who goes nuts and commits some heinous crime and the fact that they played violent video games often is trotted out as either the sole cause or the trigger for the event. But there's thousands (maybe tens of thousands I don't have figures for EU) of other EU gamers playing HL and CS and somehow, beyond all odds, they manage to not go psycho and kill a bunch of people, how do they manage? [/sarcasm]

    Why in this modern age must popliticians treat entire continental populations like a kindergarten class? A statistically insignificant number of people are in the ven diagram overlap of violent videogame players and violent criminals so such games are banned for everyone? Talk about lazy legislation, so sorry it's easier to try and ruin it for everyone else instead of actually investigating the other motivations and causes that lead to these tragedies and maybe learning to diagnose and treat or prevent such violent behavior. This has all been said before, it will all be said again, just ranting to get it out of my system.

    --
    -- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
  6. Problem with homicidal tendencies not games by Sciros · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What is with the constant scapegoating of video games in Germany? Folks connected to a murder being Final Fantasy fans is about as relevant as their being, I don't know, Nestea Cool fans or something. You would really have to be flat-out disingenuous and have some alternate agenda in order to make a connection between Final Fantasy VII and a homicide (unless it was with a big big sword, or one of those sweet guns Vincent has... mmm triple barrel goodness...). As for pushing for EU-wide standards for violence in games, well unless the EU is all one big monolithic culture, those standards will not reflect the views of enough people IMO. But then again I'm not even a supporter of ESRB ratings in the US. Or movie ratings for that matter.

    --
    I like basketball!!1!
  7. Final Fantasy VII?! by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This, just days after two Final Fantasy VII fans were arrested in connection with a series of killings.

    They're calling Final Fantasy VII "Killerspiele" ("killer game") because two killers used aliases from the game.

    They think the game inspired them to kill. How? Did they take turns?

    Did someone translate the X-Play skit for "RPG Radiculopathy" into German and leave out the humor?

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
    1. Re:Final Fantasy VII?! by Jesus_666 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Slight correction: One Killerspiel, many Killerspiele. The s-suffix indicates the plural.

      On an unrelated note, I'll try to raise public awareness of Gewaltliteratur ("violence literature"), which is a term I've invented for any kind of book in which someone kills any being without immediately being followed by a note by the author detailing that what that character did is wrong and that killing is bad. Such violent hate speech-filled books needs to be banned, all of them. Yes, including the Bible and all newspaper articles about executions.
      Hey, if we ban video games containing death why allow literature containing it?

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
  8. No, not "Germany" by koinu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Only some stupid politicians!