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."

Comments

Let's teach kids to make hardware mods early

[Mrs. Grundy]

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.

Re:Let's teach kids to make hardware mods early

[aerthling]

When I was a kid, my parents had a 'red button' called a leather belt. It was much harder to hack.

Harder to hack, my arse! When this happened to me, I used to modify the client (my bottom) by increasing the resistance (extra underpants) and return a spoofed result to the server.

Sounds a bit useless

[TheLink]

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.

Re:Sounds a bit useless

[mike2R]

Also, what's the betting that this is mainly a "for the sake of the children, hide the tiny, brief flashes of flesh" idea (which you're less likely to know about) rather than a "for the sake of the children, stop the massed bloodshed" idea (which generally tends to be obvious from the format of the game).

Probably not actually, since this is a proposal for a piece of misguided European legislation, rather than misguided US legislation.

The EU has many many faults, but thankfully over-regulating the human nipple isn't often one of them.

crappy summary of a bad summary

[Tom]

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?

Games are supposed to be educational

[jsse]

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.

Re:No IR needed to toggle power switch

[h4rm0ny]

I've got a better one. Tell your child to stop playing the game. If a parent can see what their child is doing in order to press a red button, then they can just as easily tell their child what not to do.

Relying on physical means to control your child's behaviour only sends the message that physical means are the only means to control their behaviour and if they can avoid or counter the physical means, they can behave as they wish. Are the people who proposed this bill afraid of their own children? Is physical control what they rely on?

Re:Universal Remote

[Weedlekin]

"They could employ the same system that the Xbox employs. Add an IR receiver."

A lot of people with an XBox 360 don't even have to go that far, because Microsoft have once again proved that they're ahead of curve, and have already equipped their system with a special facility that displays a red circle on the screen to indicate that all gaming has been suspended for an indefinite period. This lock-out mechanism so secure that the only way to resume gaming is by sending the machine back to Microsoft, where a specially trained technician will the reset the cunningly hidden Naughty Person flag, and then send it back after a suitable period has elapsed to teach people that being naughty has consequences.