Surprise, surprise. Yet another anti-violent video game activist is out and about, and claiming that gamers are all a bunch of soon-to-be murderers. In this case, it's Phyllis Schlafley, who believes that violent video games should not be protected under the First Ammendment ... but violent literature is ok.
Judges around America have allowed violent video games to be sold (with the appropriate rating of course) because they have a right to be protected under the First Amendment. Such court cases often have psychologists revealing their research on violent video games - That they do not affect people negatively.
Phyllis Schlafley does not agree though. In fact she believes that "supremacist judges" are wrong in allowing these games to be sold, and she says why.
There is a point that Schlafley is clearly missing in her article though: Violent video games
aren't allowed to be sold to children. They have clear teen and adult ratings for a reason.
GamesRadar also brought up a good point in
this article, which could be directly applied to Schlafley's ignorance ...
quote GamesRadar
When it comes to games though we forget that people have brains, and censor or even ban them “just to be on the safe side” in case someone forgets they’re playing a videogame and goes on a killing spree.
Hey, guess what? I know this stuff isn’t real! I’m controlling it all by pressing buttons! And when I stop pressing those buttons, the stuff stops happening! It’s a bit of a clue.
Extremely violent video games have become the dangerous obsession of a significant portion of our youth, and several towns and states have passed ordinances intended to prevent minors from buying or viewing them. But judicial supremacists are striking down these laws by claiming this extremely graphic violence deserves the same First Amendment protection as Shakespeare.
That decision acknowledged a psychologist's expert testimony that violent video games frequently lead to aggressive behavior, yet inexplicably rejected it, noting instead that a high school principal who testified was unable to prove that violent video games cause psychological harm to teens who play them.
The decision compared violent video games to classic works of literature such as "The Odyssey," "The Divine Comedy" and "War and Peace."
These decisions ignore the way violent video games encourage role-playing, making the child the perpetrator of violence in a manner that no book or movie can. It does not require a leap in imagination to see the risk of immature players transferring violent role-playing to real life.
A teenager who learns how to murder and mutilate human beings in video games is desensitized to commit heinous crimes against his neighbors. Nothing in the First Amendment should prevent regulations to stop this, supremacist judges to the contrary notwithstanding.
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Can we lock up stupid people like this already PLEASE!?.
Violent video games don't influence kids to commit crimes any more than violent movies do. If a parent doesn't want their kid to play violent games, don't *bleep*ing buy them it. Most stores these days that sell video games have policies that state they will not sell M-rated video games to anyone who is not 17 years old or older.
They are not! I go into a shop. Aim to buy an a 18+ game and they ask me for ID. ID bitch!. How can I get past that I will never know.. I will though give you some advice. Go hunting those responsible +18 year olds parents who are giving games to the kids as they should be getting the blame if anything comes of it, not the games itself.
God this broad is a moron and what she said on game politics was pretty damn funny..."resident evil 4 is such a violent game it shouldnt even be sold to adults" Go to hell and dont think you have the right to tell grown adults what they can and cant play...When will this anti game crap go away..
Violence has been a part of society forever. You may as well just ban all violence, from movies too, oh wait, except books remember!
Rediculous. Normal people an handle violence if they hoose to expose themsleves to it. It's only mentally-unstable people that react to it and copy it.
Banning games consoles will have a massive effect on the economy too, I'll have you know.