I have just tuned in to the debate surrounding the the Rule of the Rose games for the PS2. This game has been given a 16+ PEGI certificate yet the moral panic mongers have managed to cause such a furore that the release of this game has been postponed!
The Daily Mail (as you might expect) have called this game 'obscenely cruel' and surprisingly The Times have jumped on the band wagon also. To put the tin lid on this the EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has also released a press statement calling for an investigation into some of these obscene and perverse video games.
Look, where is the parental responsibility here?! If a game has a graded certificate that tells you that it's not suitable for your young child then don't buy it. Would you buy an 18 certificate DVD to put in your 10 year old's Xmas stocking? No, well then use the same judgment when buying games.This is very similar to a minor celebrity spat that I saw on Never Mind the Buzzcocks during the week. Jamelia (of Singstar fame) had said to Lily Allen that she would have liked a censored version (no swearing or sexual references) of her latest release so her very young daughter could enjoy it. Lily Allen point blank refused and said that her audience was not young girls and that no she wouldn't change her work...Why do we have to even consider that art and media should be made palatable for a very Young audience when it is clearly stated on much of it that the target audience is adult. Yes I know that youngsters will get their hands on this material but isn't that what growing up is about at times? Breaking the rules, pushing the boundaries, exploring the taboos and things that are 'not for you'. All we can do is to put mechanisms such as PEGI in place that informs adults of the nature of media that they intend to buy and we have to leave it up to them. That's my tuppence worth anyway.
Now, it seems that I'm going to have wait to be flegged to death as they say in Dundee by Rules of the Rose so I'm just going to but Fatal Frame instead.
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