The European Union (known in some circles as The Nazi Party 2.0) has given the videogames industry two years in order to protect children better. Apparently, game companies are not doing enough to replace parents and teachers and now have to find a way to spy on children 24/7 to make sure their products are not being bought. That was sarcasm, that last sentence.
“Creators have to enjoy freedom of expression but at the same time it’s an industry that impacts society,” stated EU Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding, possibly while annexing the Sudetenland. EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Meglena Kuneva added, “When children go out to play today they enter the world of joysticks. We are not quite sure where they go and there is real anxiety from parents.”
Kids still use joysticks, according to the EU.
The ELSPA has come out and said that it thinks the PEGI rating system is robust enough and would like it adopted more in the UK. The European Commission admitted that there is no strong evidence linking violence in videogames to the behavior of children, but wants a code of conduct for the games industry as a “precaution.”
The EU doesn’t seem to have said what would happen if the industry doesn’t protect children better, probably because it doesn’t know. What I know, however, is that making the games industry assume obligation for the protection of children is silly. It should be the game store’s job not to sell games to minors, the parent’s job not to buy games for minors, and the games industry’s job?
Make games.
That is where its responsibility begins and ends.
