Censorship

Censorship revolving around video games have been a controversial area for the gamers, the media and the advocates for video game censorship (such as Jack Thompson and Michael Atkinson). People for censorship of video games, tend to argue that it will turn children into psychopaths due to the level of violence that the child is able to take part in. Jack Thompson has even gone as far to label video games "murder simulators" and for South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson to block the possibility for an R18 rating within Australia because he doesn't want children to be able to get their hands on R18+ games easily. He says "I understand that the lack of an R18+ classification denies some adults the chance to play some games, however, the need to keep potentially harmful material away from children is far more important."

What these show is that people are two busy seeing children as passive, ignorant users of media. Looking towards the media effects model (hypodermic needle) instead of taking account of the more complex relationship that audiences share with media forms. Example of this is Jack Thompson who said "You just watch. There is going to be a Columbine-times-10 incident, and everyone will finally get it. Either that, or some video gamer is going to go Columbine at some video game exec's expense or at E3, and then the industry will begin to realize that there is no place to hide, that it has trained a nation of Manchurian Children." It also seems to ignore the effects that a person's life would have on them, which can have stronger effect on the person.

Here's some interesting links on the subject:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlSIqJpXI5A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWnQbIkLUzw

http://kotaku.com/374586/australian-game-ratings-behind-the-times