All bunch of crowd pleasing sound bites, but it says little. All laced in the 'protect the children' spiel.

I'm surprised he hasn't said anything about whether our ratings systems works or not, because that's what's supposed to help parents do what he asking. Add parental controls into that and there's already enough in place to help parents.

Truth is parents don't care enough as they should. Gordy can't see this truth though and assumes its down to developers.

....WRONG!!!!...

Bang on.



I'm not really convinced that he is that out of touch, to be honest. He has to face the reality, which is that a significant proportion of his potential voters grew up with and still regularly play games. And, by extension, many of those potential voters REALLY don't like being told what they can and cannot buy and play under the guise of 'protecting the children/the vulnerable'. Those potential voters find that approach deeply misjudged and patronising.

Even with the greatest parental will in the world and/or the keenest state-sponsored censors, most children will be able to watch and play pretty much anything they like - including violent /adult material - on mobiles, handheld consoles and on home consoles/computers. (I don't currently buy the industry line about parental controls - as it currently seems that these are not being implemented or promoted well enough).

Indeed, there's a strong argument that censoring pretty much anything only leads to it gaining more of a cool/must-get value in the playground. The key focus HAS to be education - within the home and at school - not on sweeping nasty things that children should not see under the carpet.

Awwww, man, I was all geared up to get really angry when I read the headline, but what he said didn't seem all that bad. Okay, so he drifted completely off of talking about video games and went on about the internet instead, but it's not uncommon for a politician to answer a different question than they were asked.

Of course, I might be all ready to get offended again when the violent video game review is concluded.

"Truth is parents don't care enough as they should. "

This is so true I work in a supermarket and this summer I refused to sell an 8 year old a 15 rated game which his dad then told me that he would bye for them. I told him a polite way that it is illegal for me to sell a game to a person that is going to let underage children play it in the same way it is with alcohol. I then when and got my manager told them I was being abusive to him and his children. I was told to sell him the game by management, they later told me that I was in the right but it was not right to tell customers which games there children can and can not play.

This is the same story that I am hearing over and over from people that have experience of working in game stores and shops selling games - that of parents getting annoyed with (and in many cases even abusive towards) responsible shop assistants and managers for pointing out the age-rating on a game. It is deeply worrying.

Would those same parents do the same if it were an 18-rated movie? I suspect not.