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Most Laws Attempting Limits of Violent Videogames Fail
circletimessquare writes "Good news for common sense: the New York Times examines the track record of state laws attempting to put additional limits on violent videogames, and finds that the courts have struck almost all of them down as unconstitutional. Especially notable is this gem of a quote, from Judge Richard A. Posner: 'Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low ... It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware. To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it.'"
Are you mods on crack again? How is answering a question in the third post in a thread (which incidentally became the 5th or 6th post total) redundant? It's like you're not even trying! If you want to take a swipe at my karma, the very least least you can do is mod me overrated!
Using the J word should be banned.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
I am against censorship on principle, and I would like to believe that media violence and real violence are totally unconnected. However, reality unfortunately does not always bend to my principles.
According to New Scientist April 2007, the link between media violence and aggression in children is less conclusive than that linking active tobacco smoking to lung cancer, but more conclusive than that linking passive smoking to lung cancer! This evidence comes from two types of study:
1. Controlled short-term studies: Show one group of children a video of someone beating up a doll, and another group some more anodyne video. Then leave the children alone with the doll. Group one is far more likely to beat up the doll, in some cases using the same actions and words as the actor in the video.
2. Environmental longitudinal studies: Compare the amount of violent media viewed in childhood to the rate of violent crime or domestic violence in adulthood. These studies show a moderate-to-strong correlation.
Of course these studies are not perfect. Type 1 effects may not be long-term, and type 2 effects may not show causation (e.g. maybe people predisposed to violence are more attracted to violent tv). The "perfect study" (keeping two groups in long-term isolation and controlling for all factors except exposure to violent media) is impossible for both logistical and ethical reasons.
However the evidence as it exists does not point to a "violent media = harmless" message, much as we would all like it to.