Slashdot Mirror
Euro Parliament Wants "Red Button" For Shutting Down Games
GamePolitics writes "The European Parliament has actually requested that red, panic-style buttons be set up for use by parents whose children play online games. The buttons would allow the parents to quickly shut the game down should something inappropriate occur. Wouldn't the old-school on-off switch work just as well?"
To be fair, the report isn't entirely crazy; it says games "can also be used for educational and medical purposes," and acknowledges that the "presence of violence in video games does not automatically lead to violent behaviour."
What about online PC games?
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mafia rpg online
Seriously.
1. phillips head screwdriver (to open case)
2. wire cutter (to cut leads to switch)
3. wire nut (to short circuit around switch)
4. profit?
The really clever kids will find a way to install a software patch that makes any game say "Show us your tits!" every time the button is pressed.
When I was a kid, my parents had a 'red button' called a leather belt. It was much harder to hack.
Or to be an ISO 9001-complaint "video game maker" you have to code in some kind of red button? In Soviet Europe, the switch kills you.
Simply the act of pushing your kid out of the way and commandeering the mouse to click said button pretty much takes care of the situation. From there, a little parenting and you are all set. Clicking on the button at that point seems a little silly. You could just close the application. In fact, the button always existed...it's part of the OS GUI API.
THL phish sticks
of a game for parents?
Sounds useless, but to answer the question - using the power switch could cause file system corruption.
So if you could rig this up to the equivalent of "Alt-F4" then you can avoid that.
As for why it's useless, if your child is not ready to see "stuff", and they see "stuff", and then you press the panic button, they won't _unsee_ stuff. In fact, they would probably remember it for a very long time.
If your child is not ready, just don't let them play such games, and perhaps you should work harder at getting them ready.
You don't send soldiers to battle untrained and unarmed.
Brainwash/domesticate your kids before the world does it for you (they want your kids to buy/believe their stuff without thinking too much or even at all).
Yes you may think brainwashing is wrong. But it's usually better to train them "fire = bad", and hopefully they survive long enough to figure out the complexities and subtleties.
What's that white 'X' in that red square/rectangle, then?
From the EU Parliament Press release:
Furthermore in the actual draft report, the word "button" never appears. As such, the red button doesn't seem to be a literal red button, rather a figurative term used in the press release as a euphemism for parental controls. I'm not sure how this is any different from how the current-gen consoles implement parental controls though.
Ok, so this /. article links to an article that already is a bad summary of this press release, which sounds a little more enlightened:
To help parents choose, MEPs would like to see more public awareness of the content of video games, parental control options and instruments such as the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) age rating system.
Sounds to me like they're doing the exact right thing: Making parents responsible and asking game companies to give them options.
Now the actual "red button" part reads like this in the press release:
the report proposes fitting consoles, computers or other game devices with a "red button" to give parents the chance to disable a game or control access at certain times.
That does not sound like an emergency "off" switch to me. It sounds more like a timer thing, where a parent can tell the computer "no online games for my son after 22:00". Unfortunately, I couldn't find a source beyond the press release, so what exactly they have in mind remains a mystery. It does sound a lot less exciting than TFA makes it to be. Selective quoting, anyone?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
what about good old alt-f4???
Could I sell RED USB ALT-F4 buttons for parents?
To be fair, the report isn't entirely crazy; it says games "can also be used for educational and medical purposes,"
I do agree that sex and violent games are meant to be educational.
Like last time I caught my cousin attempt to flirt with a CG girl in hope to have cyber sex. I pressed the magic red-button and gave him a few bucks, told him to go out and do a real girls like a real man.
The other time I caught him shooting polygonal guys on streets with lots of bullets and first-aid boxes scattering around. Needless to say, I pressed the magic red-button again and gave him a shotgun, told him to hit the street and shoot real people like a real man.
They could employ the same system that the Xbox employs. Add an IR receiver.
I already have a button which turns off my Xbox 360 in one button press. It's on my Logitch Harmony. When I press "Off" it turns off my hometheater, including my 360.
If they want a quick "OMG boobs!" button then they just need a universal remote. Program it to the XBox's IR "Off" command and bam! Problem solved.
If people start swearing I could just press the "mute" button and it'll mute my receiver.
I guess the EU wants to legislate the ownership or at least education for parents to purchase a Universal Remote. PC games? Add an IR receiver. Again, mute is easy enough in windows. My keyboard has a mute button so there must be a hook. Also minimizing to desktop is a hotkey so that should be pretty easy to setup to an IR command as well.
On most computers, you have to hold down the power button to shut down the system, giving five unfiltered seconds of access to lewd material, derogatory language, and corrupting influences whilst you awkwardly try to cover the monitor with your body.
Provided that the power switch is visible and easily accessible to parents, then yes. And hey, it doesn't even need to be red -- I think the "red button" idea is metaphorical.
But, think about it. Like many people on Slashdot, I'm an advocate of responsible parenting: know what your children are doing (within bounds of privacy, dependent on the child's maturity), set reasonable boundaries, and take opportunities to discuss things with your children (i.e., make things learning experiences where possible). Is it such a bad idea, if a parent sees a child exposed to inappropriate media (whether it be music, television, or video games, always taking into account the age and maturity of the child), to hit the power switch? What better time to have a discussion with your child?
I mean, you could try to have a discussion hours later. Or, you could turn off the inappropriate movie / video game / whatever, and have a discussion about, e.g., reality vs. fiction. If you, as a parent, are convinced that the child understands the implications of whatever media they were viewing, and that they are mature enough to view it / play with it, then turn it back on. Worst case, your child is pouty about having to go back to their last save point.
Sure as hell beats being one of those parents who doesn't understand why the government didn't stop them from purchasing GTA IV for their six-year-old.
Why don't we just dig out the eyes of our kids so they never have to run the risk of seeing something the parents fear may harm the child... You all see how ridiculous this paranoid over-protectionist crap is, right?
..::ALWAYS : watching::..
Give one to this kid's parents:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgASIJMalgM
It's called right hand
You're over-thinking the problem. Your setup sounds nice, but all that's required --and a feature that's already implemented-- is just plain moseying over to the power switch and extending a finger at it. Any finger will do! ;-)
"Good news, everyone!"
For online pc games, a solution exists.
"Good news, everyone!"
and this was just about 12 years ago, one of my friends told me about this awesome cheat code for Duke Nukem 3D where if you entered the code and then pressed space bar in front of a lady they would sing (or some other stupid thing). Of course, when I entered the code and hit space, the lady (stripper) took off her top and showed me her boobs (vague lumps with pink squares in the middle). :O )"
Of COURSE, at this juncture, my mother entered the room. I don't remember the exact look on her face, as such, but attempting to recall it now, I envision Munch's "the Scream (
She told me to turn off the game, or I would be grounded, and would have no more access to the computer. That's it. No magic button was required. Her finger did not even have to touch some mundane "on/off switch". I took one last glance at the cardboard-pixel boobs dancing haltingly across my screen and decided that, whatever this was exactly, it wasn't worth the infinite punishments my mother seemed prepared to apply.
Considering that day now, I don't see much need for some sort of "red button". Setting aside the fact that various consoles and televisions already have remotes with buttons serving the mandated purpose, I lay before you this objection: parents already have (very nearly) absolute power over their children. Button or no button, you can stop them from participating in any leisure activity that you feel is inappropriate with little more than a threat and a stern tone of voice. You certainly have the power to take away any consoles or computers which might allow them to defy your violence/profanity/digital-titty embargo.
A button makes it easier, less personal, more secret. It also puts an additional burden on the video game industry, to the glee of family values groups everywhere. It is not a necessarily solution. It is at best a crutch used to control your offspring, and at worst a lie used to manipulate them.
Should you ever see your children looking at something that you don't think they should see, then tell them that they can either stop, or lose some privileges.
i want a red button for shutting down brussels....
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
Leave it to Slashdot sensationalism to spin an EU report which is generally very positive towards gaming as some kind of evil plot...
Read the Reuters article in the summary for more info on what this was actually about:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNewsMolt/idUKTRE51A60H20090211
.: Max Romantschuk
That would mean that parents should be actually and actively looking after their children during their spare time.
That's unlikely to happen as they use Internet as a baby sitter.
Thus in the end, the panic button will cost money and resources with very little usefulness.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Here's a novel thought?
Try parenting!
Check the PG rating, it's even on the package in EU, read up on the game?.
think about it, what would make your kid hate you more,
not letting them buying the game,
or letting them buy the game, and then take it away after a few minutes?
~men are from earth. women are from earth. deal with it.~
So many other things could also do with a panic button to shut things down "should something inappropriate occur"; the list is endless, but we could start with:
- The international banking system, (too late)
- The North Korean politburo
- The Australian parliament
- The Canadian parliament and,
- The European parliament!
Unless you're using FAT, the problem is almost entirely unlikely to happen, especially under such light write loads.
The XBOX360 already has something called parental controls, and Windows Vista has them too. Parents can use them to disable games for certain age levels (no 16+ games, for example) or times (22:00 is bedtime). So what's new about this?
The reason "just using the off switch" won't work for this, is because the end-goal is to create the "right" that parents can plunk their children down in front of the digital idiot box, just as they used to do with the analogue idiot box, and have it mind their children.
This is the reason behind the filtering in Australia. It isn't really about making children "safer" but about making the parents life easier.
Just as "adult" programs are proscribed to certain times and broadcasters heavily punished for any "adult" material that slips through, expect more and more attempts at legislating away parental responsibility. Although it can never work without cutting off nearly all international networks, these attempts will not stop until citizens of these countries stop being sheep and remember what self-sufficiency is.
========
CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
Attach the panic button to an ejection seat to rocket your child to safety when anything objectionable shows up in a game.
Don't forget to puncture the eardrums while you're digging out the eyes. Wouldn't want the little tykes hearing something that may harm them when they're running around blind, now would we?
I see this being more useful for the kid to keep his parents from seeing what he's doing...
Who knows how many accidents have occured while trying to turn off a monitor, mute audio, and zip up a fly simultainously, as Mom walks in.
Blood EVERYWHERE.
I want a Red Panic Button to shut down law making when Legislatures are being dipshits.
Europeans also would like a "Red Button" for shutting down Parliament. Wishful thinking.
You know, it's time to hit whatever button will cause this unnecessary overreaction to halt.
The most harmful thing for kids is having controlling adults around them who can't prioritize actual dangers. The kids already know all the bad words and most likely they know more bad words than you.
If you want to keep your kids from hearing bad words, keep them isolated from their peers.
see a Text Widget
Why not just beat them?
Beat them when they play a violent game.
Beat them when they play cowboys and indians (dirty racists).
Beat them when they listen to rap music (gun and drug culture).
Beat them when they watch music television (lewd imagery and soft sexual content).
Beat them when they watch the news (war, rape, murder, animal cruelty, fraud, theft, and binge drinking).
Beat them when they get up in the morning, just in case.
Seriously, this is one fucked up piece of news.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
It's only the data that was just (going to be) written that you'll lose. It's an entirely different problem than FS corruption, which means that the whole structure is f'd up and you don't know which block belongs to what file.
Yes, we need this red panic button on every laptop and desktop in each and every office.
Imagine, one button to close all those Freecells, Minesweepers, ./ or pr0n windows.
I'm 100% for :-)
Kids would profit too, just one button to press when they hear their parent's wedding ring touching their door handle.
I don't think we have much to worry about guys.
From the posts I've seen, I think we have finally gone beyond the 1990's and have acknowledged the fact that video games are just video games.
Seriously, 18 year old's can vote. We've grown up with Doom and GTA, this unchecked aggression will not stand man!
As parent you actually have to EDUCATE your children, you must SPEND TIME with them and teach them about stuff and you must take a look what they do?
You cannot just buy a PC/TV and put in whatever program happens to be shipped to shops?
WTF!11 If I had known that before... where can I give those children back? Or wait, I just dial 0800-EUROPE (alternatly use 0800-UNITEDSTATES, 0800-CORRUPTION, or 0800-STUPIDITY) and the some magic politicians who promise to have The Clue(TM) will take all that responsibility from me! Phui, that was clsoe!
Have you ever tried simply turning off the TV, sitting down with your children, and hitting them?
Or simply let parents parent. Hell the games have a rating on them and list what is in them, online games... Would they let their little innocent kid out on the internet unsupervised... it's full of things they don't want little bobby to see. You can legislate it in... but none of the parents that would use it... would need it because they already are parenting The ones that want it are not parenting to begin with, and wouldn't be there to use when they let the TV/Net babysit the spawn
AFAIK, Linux has no support for putting application level transactions into the journal, and thus no application uses it. So the only possibility is to add an entire journalling layer to the application
No problem. SQLite is ported to just about every popular multitasking platform.
OK parents, how about you stop being stupid and actually take responsibility for raising your kids?
My son's eight and he loves video games. He's got his own DS, and he's even been trying out an MMORPG (Fusion Fall by the Cartoon Network).
We don't let him play excessively (even though I have a tendency to want to play video games excessively), we don't let him play unsupervised (all computers are in public areas, he won't have a computer in his room until he goes off to university), and we teach him about the dangers of being online.
Ultimately, you are responsible for your kids and what they do. Grow some balls and stop trying to blame other things for your inattentiveness and ignorance.
- chrish
Kids will quickly reverse engineer the so called red button to shut down their parents and/or shut down the lawmakers
If they are big enough to hold onto the device, you are obviously mistaken that they need to be shielded from it.
I don't follow this part of your reasoning. A nine-year-old can hold onto a PSP. A nine-year-old can watch the trailer for the scat film Hungry Bitches on a PSP. But wouldn't you want to shield a nine-year-old from what has come to be called "2 Girls 1 Cup"?
I'm not saying I'm excited about parents being able to kill their kids' gaming experiences, but the idea of a Big Red Button that turns off your PC might sell well on ThinkGeek etc. I could see myself using it at quitting time, flipping open the clear protective cover, hovering my hand over it as I count "3... 2... 1"...
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
It was called beating the shit out of me if I ignored their command to turn the TV off NOW! This same button worked quite well to make me do my homework, do my chores and made me respect my elders into my early teens. Perhaps they should give that a shot...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
wouldn't that be awped by a wallhacking grue?
When I was ten years old, I was playing games like Fallout and Daggerfall, in which I was doing all manner of highly immoral things including murder and theft and I turned out just fine, most of us did. So ask yourself, what has the ESRB accomplished short of making people paranoid?
Our greatest enemy is neither a single man, nor is it a nation, it is, as it has always been, our own greed.
Its that fancy thing in the basement called a breaker panel.
When non-parents give parenting advice. Thank you! Thank you for imparting to us poor parents your infinite wisdom of checking the ESRB ratings on the box. We had no idea such a thing existed. As we know, the only way a child can get their hands on a game is when their parents buy it for them. Children never borrow inappropriate games from their friends to play when their parents aren't looking. Nor do they ever purchase games themselves. Your solution is bullet proof! You are truely a savant among non-parents!
Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
Press here.
Parents, have you ever tried just simply taking your children aside, sitting down, and beating them?
-Bender, founder, Fathers Against Rude Television
the clapper!
That's all you need. Well, at least an fsync that works, which, when you look at the hoops sqlite has to jump on some systems, is not that easy. For example fsync on MacOSX doesn't seem to guarantee squat.
FS journalling is at another level of abstraction. The kind of access to the journal you describe would be of use only when developing a transactional DB application that would store objects in individual files. It's not needed when the data/structure is stored in tablespace and journal files.
This is silly. If parents are afraid of their children seeing and hearing objectionable material, they can screen the game purchases before the child is able to play the game. Also, the XBox360, PS3, Mac, and PCs will actually work without a physical connection to the Internet. For basic office, creativity, and music listening uses, and for single-player modes of games, the Internet is not required for use. Once a system has been updated and the necessary software is downloaded, a connection to the Net is not needed for continuing function. Also, the PS3 and XBox360 work fine without a connection to the Net. Parents can also set limits to how much time the child spends playing games on these systems. Parents could also enroll their children in clubs, church activities, and if the parents own their own business, get their children to lend a hand and participate in the business. Any one of these is always preferrable to having a government "legislate" how a game or any other software should be produced for private use.
One of the things I find most frustrating about news articles like this is the fact that things like "big red button to turn off the game at the first sign of inappropriate content" already exist, in a manner, in most modern consoles. For example, the Xbox 360 will not allow people to play videogames (or DVDs) above a certain age rating without a user-defined password. I guess the problem is that most parents aren't tech-savvy enough to muck around inside the system menu of a modern console to find this setting. What's the point in setting a password if you have to get your child to set the password for you? In fact, to answer Gamepolitics' question, I guess this unfamiliarity with the technology gives us a reason why the on/off switch isn't good enough - I know my own mother would be afraid of touching it "in case it breaks". A big red button with one defined purpose (to turn off the game without breaking anything) at least puts the functionality in terms of something can conceptualize easily.