Censorship Silliness; A Plea to Parents

Valve is appealing the ban of Left 4 Dead 2 in Australia. Basically, the way Australian ratings work is that there's no rating above 15+ for games. This would be analogous to having no "R" movie rating, and instead banning anything over "PG-13" (15 in this case, but you get the idea) unless they were edited to fit the lower rating. This is an obviously broken system; it implies and abides by the faulty old logic that video games are for children and denies any opportunity for the medium to mature. Video games are not and never were merely children's toys. L4D2, specifically, is not made for kids. I doubt Valve would want players under 18 playing it. So how can you ban a game made for players over 15 on principle alone? Most gamers are over 18, and they are being denied the opportunity to play a game in order to ... I honestly don't know. Protect the children? I fail to see the logic.

Hey, Australia: Kids shouldn't have alcohol. You'd best ban beer. For the Children, you know.

The problem lies with parents. Again, the old-fashioned perception that video games are for children comes into play. In the States, many retailers cannot sell a Mature (17+) rated game to a minor. However, those kids can often say to their parent, "Hey, Mom, can you buy me Brain Exploder 4?" and one of two things happen: The parent acquiesces after some pestering and buys the game, or the parent, horrified by the things she sees on the news about video game violence, vehemently refuses, at which point the kid just goes to a friend with cooler parents and plays his copy. Parents regulate children's access to alcohol, firearms, poisons, R-rated movies, and the family car because they are well aware children should not have access to these things. Video games have not taken this status in parents' collective consciousness yet, so governments regulate children's (and everyone's) access to games.

So, parents! Be informed! Know the ratings! Check out what your kids are playing! (Hell, I don't know, take an interest in their lives, perhaps!) The Enterainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) is the ratings body in the US, and they are really pushing to inform parents of the ratings. The more parents know about how games are rated and why, the more intelligent decisions they can make regarding what their kids play. And the less government regulations the industry will have to contend with. Violence is pretty well-tolerated in the States currently, but any sex in a game, regardless of how tastefully done or important to the storyline, is generally grounds for banning in at least some stores over here. A single bare breast in a game is practically a kiss of death, but this, and often much more, is fairly standard in an R-rated movie. This double-standard will be the next stigma for games to overcome.

P.S. Now I'm going to have to make Brain Exploders 1 – 3 just so I can make 4. :-p