Government take stand against foolish Vaz

After my last piece maybe I should take a step back and actually thank the Government in their support for the videogames industry.My last piece here was looking at the Government as a whole when I should have been attacking Keith Vaz and the Daily Mail solely.  My justification was the slamming that Vaz has just got in Parliament after bringing up the amount of violence and that now famous scene during a Q + A with Sion Simon (culture, media and sport minister).

Keith Vaz spoke out about the violent videogame Modern Warfare 2 falling into the hands of innocent children since it contains such violence that even the publisher has had to put in game warnings in.

The response to our now best friend was “The clearest recommendation of the Byron Review is that content suitable for adults should be labelled as such and sold as such, that it should be an offence to sell such content to children,”

“That’s the case under current law, it will be the case with the law when it changes under the Digital Economy Bill. This game the honourable gentleman refers to is a certificate 18 game, it should not be sold to children and the government’s job is to make sure that adults, clearly labelled, can get what adults should be able to, and that children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content. ”

Tom Watson, who is labour even went on to say that he had seen the scene himself and felt that it was no worse than what has been seen on film or read in books before of a similar rating.  Mr Watson even went so far as to tell Vaz to stop collaberating with the Daily Mail to create a moral panic over the use of videogames and to instead support the gaming industry in what it is achieving.

The entire knock down is here in the full transcript:-

Keith Vaz, Labour, Leicester East (in response to an answer from Sion Simon on the Byron Review – “What steps have been taken to implement the review on Safer Children in a digital world?”)

“Is the Minister aware that at midnight tonight a new and violent videogame called Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is to be released. It contains such scenes of brutality that even the manufacturers have put in warnings within the game telling people how they can skip particular scenes.

“Given the recommendations of the Byron Review, specifically paragraphs 32 and 33, what steps is the government proposing to take in order to ensure these violent games do not fall into the hands of children and young people. It’s not about censorship, it’s about protecting our children.”

Sion Simon, Culture, Media and Sport Minister

The clearest recommendation of the Byron Review is that content suitable for adults should be labelled as such and sold as such, that it should be an offense to sell such content to children. That’s the case under current law, it will be the case with the law when it changes under the Digital Economy Bill. This game the hon. gentleman refers to is a certificate 18 game, it should not be sold to children and the government’s job is to make sure that adults, clearly labelled, can get what adults should be able to, and that children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content.

Tom Watson, Labour, West Bromwich East

“I’ve seen the content in this videogame, it is unpleasant, though no worse than in many films and books, it is an 18-plus game and carries the BBFC 18-plus rating as well.

“Does the Minister agree that it would be better for this House to support the many thousands of games designers and coders and the many millions of games users, rather than collaborating with the Daily Mail to create moral panic over the use of videogames?”

Sion Simon, Culture, Media and Sport Minister

“I was in Dundee last week visiting the videogames industry. I can certainly agree with him that videogames is an industry, a very large, very important industry in which we have a national competitive advantage in this country, which it’s important that all members of this House, and the government, continue to support.

So, a new found respect is coming to the Government from our side now.  Just a witch hunt against Keith Vaz and any tabloid trashy newspaper that  wants to keep reporting on such stupidity.  Gaming industry about 10 – Vaz and his purile minions 0.