Patricia Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary has said that she is concerned too many children are playing games aimed at adults which include "high levels of violence", and she wants parents to take lessons in video games so that they know what their children are playing.
"You wouldn't let your child watch the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So you shouldn't let them play an 18-rated game."
What planet does she live on? Doesn't she realise that any youngster worth their salt would have seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre before they were twelve and would have moved onto Zombie Flesh Eaters and Driller Killer by the time they were thirteen. Who does she think watches these films if it isn't children?
Of course parents don't let their children watch these films or play ultra-violent games, but the kids do it anyway. If you want to boost sales of a video game then stick an 18 certificate on it and the sales to under eighteens will rocket.
In 1987 the Channel 4 TV station decided to experiment with using what was known as the 'red triangle'; the idea being was that the triangle would be displayed in the top left hand corner of the screen throughout programmes that featured scenes containing violence or explicit sexual content, effectively serving as a content warning. Opponents to this idea said that this would be an excuse to show even more sex and violence, and viewing figures for programmes that featured the red triangle conversly went up. Within months the whole experiment was quietly dropped.
I used to love the red triangle. When you came home from the pub on a Friday night you could switch to C4 and see what the film was. If there was a red triangle then it would be worth staying up, if not then you could just go to bed.
The politicians have been implying that violent video games cause people to perform violent acts, but there is never any evidence of this to back up their spurious claims.
Academics point out that there has not been any definitive research linking bloodthirsty games such as Manhunt with violent responses in players.
In a report published this week for the Video Standards Council, Dr Guy Cumberbatch said: "The research evidence on media violence causing harm to viewers is wildly exaggerated and does not stand up to scrutiny."
Dr Cumberbatch, head of the social policy think tank, the Communications Research Group, reviewed the studies on the issue.
He concluded that there was an absence of convincing research that media violence caused harm.
Maybe if Bush and Blair played more violent video games they wouldn't feel the need to go off and kill lots of real people.
Recently I've been plagued with nightmares about my nipples bleeding. I blame violent video games.
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