Prime Minister to Vaz: Changes to Law Are Necessary

Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has agreed to meet with anti-gaming Labour Member of Parliament, Keith Vaz and colleagues. The meeting is to discuss 'necessary changes' to laws governing video classification. This is more than a month before an independent yet also, confusingly, government-commissioned panel is due to report back.

Speaking in Westminster last Wednesday (16th January), the member for Leicester East - and famous anti-gaming member - Keith Vaz, cosied up to Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Vaz, who apparently yearns for a few minutes of personal time with the PM posed the kind of hard-hitting, constituency-focused question beloved of back-benchers for centuries:

"On Monday, the Prime Minister said that he was very worried about the content of video and computer games.

"Some of those games, such as Manhunt 2, depict scenes of torture and murder using hammers, knives and guns. They seem to make a virtue of gratuitous and graphic violence.

"Will he meet a delegation of Members, including the hon. (Conservative) Member for Canterbury (Mr Julian Brazier), who has a private Member's Bill on the subject, to see what further steps the industry can take to show better responsibility? Does my right hon. Friend, as a parent, agree that..."

The Speaker of the House interrupts, at which point the Prime Minister takes the chance to respond:

"My right hon. Friend is right, and this is an issue that concerns all parties in the House and every parent.

It is right that we look again at the classification system for those games and at what is happening on the internet in influencing young children. That is why the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families has set up the Byron review, in which Dr. Tanya Byron is looking at these very issues. We want children to be able to enjoy the benefits of the internet and video games, without being influenced by the pornography or violence of them.

"Dr. Byron will report in March 2008 and while it would be premature for me to say what she is likely to recommend, the classification system is one of the things that she is looking at.

"I hope that when we get the report we can have a debate in this House. I would be happy to meet my right hon. Friend's delegation and move forward whatever changes in the law are necessary."

Now, a few details here. First of all, unlike Mr Vaz's description, the Brazier private member's bill is actually about changing the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) as you can see from its title: British Board of Film Classification (Accountability to Parliament and Appeals) Bill 2007-08 (details here).

In precis, here's the PMB: 'Mr. Julian Brazier, supported by Mr. John Gummer, Keith Vaz, Miss Ann Widdecombe, Mr. Jim Hood, Stephen Pound, Mr. John Hayes, Mr. Lindsay Hoyle, Mrs. Nadine Dorries, Jim Dobbin, Mr. David Burrowes and Mr. Greg Hands, presented a Bill to make provision for parliamentary scrutiny of senior appointments to the British Board of Film Classification and of guidelines produced by it; to establish a body with powers to hear appeals against the release of videos and DVDs and the classification of works in prescribed circumstances; to make provision about penalties for the distribution of illegal works; and for connected purposes: And the same was read the First time; and ordered to be read a Second time on Friday 29 February, and to be printed [Bill 16].'

Unlike Vaz, we don't see Brazier's bill as video game-violence focused. We see that Vaz has become pally with an MP who wants to "...establish a body with powers to hear appeals against the release of videos and DVDs and the classification of works in prescribed circumstances". Yes, a body that will appeal 'against release'; an even more censorious system than we currently have in the UK.

The body responsible for promoting and supporting the UK video game industry, ELSPA, has already met with Mr Brazier to discuss his bill. Not bad for a body that has not lobbied effectively for government support an industry that is bleeding talent overseas.

Finally, the Prime Minister's response, "I would be happy to meet my right hon. Friend's delegation and move forward whatever changes in the law are necessary", strikes SPOnG as slightly weighted in terms of pre-empting that changes to the laws 'are necessary'.

The Byron report is not even due to file papers until March! Yet the head of government already appears to believe that it will recommend changes to the way in which video games are classified.

This doesn't seem like much of an independent reporting basis to SPOnG.

Of course, Brown's date and time-free response can be seen as, "Sure Keith, whatever, let's catch up. I'll call you... really I will..." piece of prevarication. The problem is in that the wording is far less ambiguous than is usual. Equally worrying is Vaz's connection to a Private Member's Bill that seeks to increase overall censorship.


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