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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.

6 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. 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
  2. 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. --
  3. No, not "Germany" by koinu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Only some stupid politicians!

  4. 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.