Jack Thompson is my hero. It’s not often that a thoughtful and intelligent person takes up the task of protecting our children from the ruthless nature of capitalism. Further, it’s not often that someone faces quite so much hatred and animosity on a topic bespeaking of such verisimilitude. Let’s be clear – Jack Thompson isn’t for removing our universal ability to choose to live our lives the way we want to.. quite the opposite. He is a big proponent for freedom and free-speech. But he also recognizes that society has chosen to define a set of rules for itself that is expressed in a number of ways. Now that society has defined these rules, he wants us to live by these rules. The question though is, are these rules that society has made up a bluff? If so.. Jack Thompson wants to call that bluff!
Jack Thompson believes that the software rating system that has been around for a few years is not living up to its credo. Games that are clearly defined as ‘mature’ and not for young teen and pre-teen audiences are getting into their hands. Further, it’s clear that these same games are being actively – marketed – to an illegal audience.
42% of the sales of “mature” rated games fall directly into the hands of an audience much younger then legally allowed to purchase. Some of these are purchased directly by their parents. A very large percentage though purchased directly by the young person. I know, the automatic response is “The parents should do better and monitor their childrens activities”. You are absolutely right. But at the same time, why do we have to strive to make the jobs our parents have to do, harder? Being a parent of a young child, I can assure you – parenting is NOT easy. There are already enough challenges out there from feeding your child to making sure a adult predator doesn’t snatch her off the street. Why do I have to worry that Bill Gates or Take Two Studios is actively marketing to my young child? I mean.. seriously, why do I have to worry about a public figure and a very public company doing something border-line illegal and morally wrong?
Cigarette ads and ads for certain kinds of Alcohol are illegal in most public places. Restrictions on the content of advertising, the place of advertising, and even the time of advertising (as on TV and RADIO) exist to control the marketing of this industry. Sure, they may WANT to market to the young audience.. but the federal and state governments have made this illegal and regulate the industry. Pornography is illegal to sell to a minor. A store may carry the content, but it is wrapped in a plastic cover and put on a high shelf. YOU try to buy a Playboy in a major store and be under 18. Let me know if it works. So why are we so lax on selling violent video games to children?
If an adult (parent or otherwise) buys and gives a cigarette, alcohol, or pornography to someone under age – they can and will go to jail. If an adult buys a violent video game for a minor, why aren’t we doing the same? Its clear with the Virginia tech, Columbine, Pine Creek and other countless examples of young people committing violence that they are extremely influenced by the content of these games! As TV becomes less and less important in our society and we spend yet more time on computers, we must exert not just legal but morale controls over these outlets for violence. We must teach our children ethical standards and not expose them to violence while their brains are not yet mature enough to understand the difference between ‘reality’ and ‘make-believe’.
Final word: Video game violence is not responsible for the worlds ills. However, video game violence contributes to the violence and the social acceptance of these acts when they are exposed to an audience far too young to comprehend and understand what they are seeing. We must take a stand for the children of America.. for the world.. and not allow video games of such violent accord into the hands of our precious children. Halo 3 should be bought by Adults and played by Adults. If this audience is not large enough for Microsoft, then perhaps Microsoft should stick with selling operating system and office productivity software instead of trying to warp our children for a few $$.
Recent examples of use of violence in video games.. and real-life violence.
• Jeffery Weise uploaded a flash game version of Grand Theft Auto Vice City in which he was predicting what he was going to do.
• Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold used Doom to train for Columbine.
• Michael Carneal was spurred to go on a spree shooting in Paducah, Kentucky by computer games and trained on Doom before the shooting.
• Prior to going on a shooting spree at Dawson College in Montreal, Kimveer Gill trained on video games for his actions.
• The FBI found that Red Lake school shooter Jeffrey Weise had "basically rehearsed for the massacre" by playing Grand Theft Auto Vice City in order to get his heart rate down and be able to kill.
• The FBI and Secret Service found that the most common denominator for shootings prior to Columbine was that the perpetrator was immersed in "incredibly violent entertainment, most notable video games."
• After Robert Steinhauser's deadly shooting at a school in Erfurt, Germany, police found "52 shooter games, most notably Counterstrike Half-Life which was his game of choice." Steinhauser "dressed up like the hero in that game for his assault." The involvement of video games in that shooting changed the law in Germany.
Wikipedia
Jack Thompson Website
