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As someone who has been paying attention to the video game industry for a long time, I’ve seen parents and activists lash out against everything from Mortal Kombat to Grand Theft Auto. While the content in the original Mortal Kombat would be considered rather tame by today’s standards, its blood and gore were so astonishing when it came out that it spurred the video game industry to begin policing itself by labeling games based on their content and the ages at which it would be appropriate to play them. Although that was way back in 1993, somehow many parents still fear that the video game industry isn’t doing enough to keep their children safe from violent content.  According to a Zogby poll of 2,100 adults taken over a few days in August (via Gamasutra), almost seventy-two percent are in favor of California’s violent video game legislation, which would make selling “ultra-violent” to minors illegal. The poll also states that sixty-five percent of parents are “concerned about the impact of ultra-violent video games on their kids,” and seventy-five percent thinks the video game industry is doing a poor job of protecting children from unsuitable content. While I’m not sure when this negative perception will ever come to an end, parents wanting to protect their children from unsuitable video games can always take advantage of the ESRB age ratings and content descriptors on every video game sold as well as the parental controls included in every system currently on the market. |