Controls Needed

As published in Tri-City News, October 1,2000

Is the entertainment industry teaching our kids to be killers?

Dave Grossman would have you believe so. The crusading US army veteran told a Surrey audience last weekend violence in movies, TV and video games is desensitizing children to the brutality of violence, even training them in the mechanics of killing.

Grossman makes his points with force and flair, even if they rely more on gut feeling than on facts. It's virtually impossible to prove a link between a kid watching shootings on TV, then later taking a gun to school.

That gut feeling, however, is inescapable: children cannot be benefiting from a diet of gory, violent imagery. The US surgeon-general and American Medical Association are persuaded, both pronouncing media violence as unfit for consumption by kids.

The question then, of course, is what to do about it.

Grossman recommends education (of consumers), legislation (regulating the shows or products) and litigation (suing the makers of the most violent video games).

The first is obvious. Parents need to know what their kids are watching, or playing on the computer, and act accordingly.

But how do you ban violence from movies and TV? The industry would scream censorship, and with good reason. Meanwhile, a film ratings system is already in place, although perhaps it should be stricter.

Video games are another matter. Their interactive, often extremely gory and increasingly realistic nature make them at least as inappropriate for young kids as any violent movie. Yet in a conflict of interest of absurd proportions, the games industry has set up its own "ratings" board for its products. Unsurprisingly, the most severe rating is usually a mere "Mature," and as Grossman correctly points out, such a rating does nothing but lure kids to buy the product.

The BC government has the right idea in developing a classification system for these games. If it's not in place when the BC Liberals likely take over next year, the new government should ensure it is completed. The Canadian and US federal governments should follow suit.

New controls on violent entertainment, though likely to prove complex and incremental, are needed.