Two events in the computer games calendar will provide important tests for the age-rating regime envisaged by Tanya Byron: the arrival next month of Grand Theft Auto IV, and a court decision last week to overturn a ban on the ultra-violent Manhunt 2.

The latest Manhunt game will be released imminently after a nine-month legal battle by its producers, who opposed its ban by the British Board of Film Classification for gratuitous violence and “sustained and cumulative casual sadism”.

The game puts the player in the position of a scientist who is subjected to terrifying experiments and escapes from a menacing asylum. An edited version, in which some of the most violent scenes were excised, was also rejected by the board. The ban was overturned, permitting the game, published by Rockstar, creators of the controversial Grand Theft Auto series, to be sold with an 18-certificate.

Games publishers said last night that they were prepared to live with plans for rigorously enforced ratings if it averted censorship and kept the £18 billion industry on track.

Keith Ramsdale, a vice-president of Electronic Arts, the world’s largest video games publisher, said that his industry was no different from other sources of entertainment. “Why is there a thirst for violent games? For the same reason that there is a thirst for violent films, books and TV. We’re not out of line with other entertainment forms.”

The industry had worked closely with Dr Byron and welcomed her proposals, he said. “There are certain things we need to do as an industry but parents need to take responsibility for looking out for their kids. We can’t control what goes on in people’s houses.”

“There are already obscene material laws in this country and it’s right that they should apply to video games. Games should not be brought to market if they breach those laws with, for example, racist or paedophile material, but if they don’t, then of course people should have access to them with the appropriate rating.”

Violent games account for one in ten of the 2,000 new games produced every year. Less than 3 per cent of games carry 18-certificates in Britain.

The most eagerly awaited game of the year is Grand Theft Auto IV, the latest in the 65-million-selling series set in the criminal underworld.

It is released on the PlayStation and Xbox platforms next month, tand he buzz from bloggers is thatGTA IVwill not disappoint with its scenes of violence, sex, profanity and general lack of social responsibility.

Dr Byron is concerned about the impact of the most violent games. She said: “ I think that it is important to look at the desensitisation to violence. The more violent images that are around . . . I think it does desensitise society and we need to think about that.”

Dr Byron’s proposals focus on what she terms the immense “digital divide” between techno-savvy children and their techno-phobic parents, allowing children to get their hands on unsuitable games and web content. She recommends a far greater awareness among parents, set out in government-funded advertisements, of key issues including the risk of children accessing pornography or giving away their identity to strangers over the internet.

Julian Brazier, the Conservative MP for Canterbury, who has long monitored the classification system for videos and computer games, said that the ruling on Manhunt 2 emphasised the need for stronger enforcement.

He said: “Most psychologists accept that children and youths respond to stimuli and copy what they see – the ability to discriminate comes as you grow older. We need more enforcement because the sale of illegal videos to youngsters is becoming a big business but there were only eight convictions last year - and most of those resulted in small fines.”

Tim Ingham, of the games industry magazine MCV, said that the Byron proposals would finally make parents aware of their responsibilities. “You won’t see so many parents going into stores to buy a Grand Theft Auto or a Manhunt game for little Johnny,” he said. Mr Ramsdale said that adult content video games should still be made “but just like film, just like cigarettes, just like alcohol we should protect minors from accessing them”.

An advertisement for Coca-Cola, satirising violent games with an acclaimed advertisement, made by Wieden & Kennedy, is seen as an example of how attitudes have changed. The advertisement, which is currently being screened, has transformed a Grand Theft Auto-style dystopia into a love-filled, dancing street.


Dirty money
$59m Amount generated by Spider-man 3 in first 24 hours of release
£170m Amount generated by Halo
3 in first 24 hours of release 3 World ranking by sales of British market for video games
5m Number of DVDs sold of the film Tomb Raider
£87.9m Video game sales in Britain in week to December 20, 2007

Source: Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition; ELSPA

Testing games

Manhunt 2 Developers Rockstar recently won a nine-month battle to sell this ultra-violent game in Britain despite the British Board of Film Classification objecting that the action, set in a psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane, “encourages visceral killing and focuses on stalking and brutal slaying.” The original Manhunt was blamed for the murder of a boy, aged 14, in Leicester in 2004.

Grand Theft Auto IV In the latest instalment, players run over pedestrians, kill police, visit prostitutes and are encouraged to drink-drive

Bully: Scholarship Edition Features a shaven-headed schoolboy who terrorises other pupils and teachers at his school with pranks including dunking children’s heads in lavatories and firing catapults at teachers. Criticised by antibullying campaigners and teaching unions for “glorifying” school bullying.

Resident Evil 4 Player is a special forces agent who is sent to rescue the President’s kidnapped daughter. Images include a woman pinned to wall by a pitchfork through her face

50 Cent: Bulletproof Loosely based on the gangster lifestyle of the rapper. Player engages in shootouts and loots the bodies of victims to buy 50 Cent recordings and music videos

God of War A warrior hunts the gods who tricked him into killing his family. Prisoners are burnt alive, victims torn in half

Source: Times database, Family Media Guide

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