Magazine Article on the Effects of 18 Age Rated Video

Games on the Public

In 1976, a driving stimulation game called Death Race was removed from an amusement
park in Illinois. There was a news story at the time that complaints had been made as it was
believed that this game encouraged players to run over pedestrians to score points. The first
moral panic over violent video games had begun.

The truth is that the big targets of moral concern come from games such as Grand Theft
Auto, Doom and Call of Duty which are all undeniably about killing and they are popular
amongst male teenagers.

An industry report estimates that 80% of the audience for the

Call of Duty series is male, and 21% is aged 10-14. Going by the
18 rating on the last three entries, that means at least a fifth of
the games vast audience shouldnt be playing.

Games may be more harmful in affecting the behaviour of younger viewers compared to
films. This is because video games are active you play the games and are interacting with
the characters in the games and are experiencing the action, whereas movies are more
passive - they are just watching and spectating the action as it is happening.

There is concern within the media of how games that contain content which may be
unsuitable for younger players of that age rating, may be affecting younger players and
encourage certain behaviours created from the game. For example, in games like Call of
Duty and Battlefield, they include campaigns which usually involve the US force as being the
good guys and the main character that you play, and the enemies are Iranian terrorists. This
could both play on and encourage racial views of world events amongst the gamers,
especially if they are younger audiences playing these games, when the age rating is
normally 18.

PEGI Pan European Game Information set age ratings on

games to ensure that they are clearly labelled by age
according to the content they contain. The rating of a game
confirms that it is suitable for players over a certain age.
Therefore, a PEGI 7 game is only suitable for those aged 7
and above, and a PEGI 18 game is only suitable for adults
aged 18 and above.

http://www.pegi.info/en/index/id/23
Age ratings have been set on games and films due to the content involved in them. There
are 5 age ratings for films, set by the BBFC: U, PG, 12A, 15 and 18, and in games there are 5
also, set by PEGI: 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18. The reason for age ratings is because the older age
rated games or films would involve content which arent suitable for younger viewers. For
example, in theory, anyone can watch a U or PG rated film, (as long as the parent or teacher
thinks it is okay for anyone under 8 or 9 to see the PG rated film), but films that are rated 12
is where some content becomes more explicit and there may be a
guardian required if anyone under that age should watch the film. 18 age
rated games have been rated for a reason. The main reason is because of
the content, but another reason is because older audiences do not want
to play the same game a young child would play, for example Rayman
which is rated 7+. People who are suitable for playing 15 or 18 rated
games would want something that would be more detailed or graphic in
the content. For example Red Dead Redemption is a game set in the Wild West in the US
and the borders of Mexico, in year 1911. You play the character of
John Marston - a former outlaw whose wife and son are taken
hostage by the government in ransom for his services as a hired
gun. The game is published by Rockstar Games, the same
publishers of Grand Theft Auto. It is an open world but has a main
storyline. It involves a lot of graphic content where you shoot and
kill other bandits or innocent civilians, and when playing the main
story, there are cut-scenes, in which one involves a sex scene. This
sort of content would not be suitable for audiences under the
rated age range. There are a lot of reasons for this, and one of the main concerns of children
under the rated age range playing these types of games is because there is a possible link
between the violence in computer games and the level of anti-social behavior that tends to
be given to children who play video games.

The American Psychological Association has carried out research and whilst they found that
there was no single risk factor to blame for aggressive behaviours, violent video games did
contribute. The research demonstrates that a consistent relation between violent video
game use and the increase in aggressive behaviour, cognitions and affect, and a decrease in
pro-social behaviour, empathy and sensitivity to aggression. Research has concluded that
the playing of violent video games is often cited as a factor in motivating and encouraging
violent youth crimes such as High School shootings in the US.
One example was the Columbine High School Massacre in 1999. Two teens went on a
shooting spree at the high school in Littleton, Colorado, resulting in killing 13 people and
wounding more than 20. They ended up turning the guns to themselves and committing
suicide. It was the worst High School shooting in US history at the time, and became a major
investigation to determine what motivated the gunmen. There were speculations about the
two who committed the killings because they had been bullied and were part of a group of
social outcasts which was fascinated by Goth culture, or even a possible influence by violent
video games (and music) but these theories were never able to be proven.

A study in 2010 stated that Violent video games cause an

increase in aggression long after the game has been turned off.
The problem is not just an academias side the media doesnt
stop on challenging a good and striking headline linking games
and real-qorld violence. Rockstar North, the development
studio behind Grand Theft Auto, also made Manhunt, which
was popular In 2003, which features brutal killing animations.
Manhunt was said to have been the motivation factor of a
murder case that took place in 2004, where the MP and chair of
home affairs committee, Keith Vaz, told the House of
Commons, The parent of the victim believe the perpetrator of
this savage attack was influenced by the video game Manhunt.
The police had reported that a copy of the game was found in the bedroom of the killer, but
was soon discovered that it was owned by the victim. Before the evidence had emerged that
the game might not have necessarily been the factor of the crime, the paper had already
campaigned for the game to be banned.

Fear of Media measures being injected into an audience to persuade them to act a certain
way, comes from the Hypodermic Needle Theory. This runs alongside to the Use of
Gratification Theory, suggesting that audiences are active consumers of Media Products and
pick and choose the gratification that they wish to receive from them.

Links Used -

Article on Violence in Video games and Research found -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33960075
Columbine High School Massacre - http://www.history.com/this-day-in-
history/columbine-high-school-massacre
Manhunt - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/09/do-video-
games-make-children-violent-nobody-knows-and-this-is-why
Media Information - https://www.slideshare.net/HeworthMedia1/video-games-and-
audience
Article on violent video games triggering aggressive behaviours later on -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3201001/Violent-video-games-
trigger-aggressive-behaviour-decade-long-review-claims.html
http://www.pamf.org/parenting-teens/general/media-web/videogames.html
http://www.ithp.org/articles/violentvideogames.html