As gamers, we’re no strangers to the blame game.
Whenever a tragedy occurs, people (understandably) search for a reason behind it. Video games are an easy target; we’ve gotten used to (and sadly even expect) at least a few people speaking up to suggest that games played a part.
What surprised me, is that this time when people started pointing the finger at video games, someone actually spoke up against it.
Gabe Rottman over at the ACLU wrote about the dangers of placing the blame on video games – not because he’s a gamer, but because it is unprovable logic that sets a potentially dangerous precedent.
The bottom line is that both the functional problem (it’s not clear that censorship would do any good) and the fact that violent video games might actually have some social value suggest strongly that parents are the ones who need to supervise their children’s consumption of media.
Give his article a read, it’s rare, rational take on the intersection of games and society.
Published: Dec 23, 2012 02:16 pm