When I turned on the tele this morning GMTV was right in the middle of talking about Manhunt and Manhunt 2, followed up with an interview above mentioned tv "personality" and the Secretary for children/education/schools/training/whatever it is nowadays Ed Balls.

They actually seemed surprisingly switched on about the whole thing, emphasising that the most important part of the review was on educating parents and ensuring they have the tools to keep their children safe from the big bad world of the internet and video games.

If I remember correctly Dr Byron even went so far as to emphasise that there is no evidence at all anywhere about people being violent etc due to games/movies and rather it was a mix of hundreds of different issues affecting that individual. Who knows maybe it might not be all bad after all.
Or am I a bit too naïve??

I hate these trial by tv hearings, especially if the BBC are involved. Whenever this kind of thing has been done before, the industry never get a fair shout, so I'm not gonna hold my water waiting on their verdict.

They should be focusing on parents policing what their kids play, more so now PS3, 360 and Wii have parental controls built in. With these parent don't have to be 'there' all the time. All they need to do is buy/rent appropriately.

Truth is kids always will want the forbidden fruits of games, film etc, and in a way that's natural, as they are maturing not regressing. Everyone will handle any kind of play different. If the government want the reasons for the ills in society, go and bloody ask kids up and down the country, as they'll hapilly tell you. Unfortunately, we see few MPs doing this. They should be, as those kids will be future voters

I hope not, though I suspect that the mainstream tabloid news response to the review will be to pick out the 'newsworthy bits' (ie anything negative relating to games) and gloss over the important bits (ie the bits about educating parents about ratings and stuff).

Or am I a bit too cynical?