FTC to Veto Violent Videos?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 5, 2001 | by Regina Holtman

Video-game manufacturers have earned guarded praise from some senators, although many remain skeptical that marketers and retailers can adequately police their industry,

Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., recently praised the videogame industry for its efforts to stop marketing adult video games to children but chastised retailers who sell violent video games to children younger than 17. "The game makers have acknowledged a serious problem," Lieberman said, later adding, "but the rest of the industry has been largely and disappointingly silent."

The industry has pledged to stop marketing adult products to children, and it implemented a voluntary rating system that has been universally adopted following criticism last year. However, at the same news conference, Sens. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Herb Kohl, D-Wis., were skeptical of any significant change. "Practically everybody in the industry still markets inappropriate games to kids" said Kohl, and "practically every retailer regularly sells these games to kids."

The three senators will introduce legislation this month that will allow the Federal Trade Commission to prosecute companies that market adult products to children. They also joined the National Institute for Media and the Family (NIMF) in releasing the annual report card on the video-game industry -- it earned an overall grade of C. When the NIMF sent young researchers, ages 7 to 14, to buy mature-rated video games, they succeeded 13 out of 16 times. Only Target and FuncoLand stores consistently stopped underage children from buying adult video games.

The video-game industry is the fastest-growing portion of the entertainment industry, generating $6.1 billion in 1999. More than 215 million video games were sold that year, amounting to two games per American household, according to the Interactive Digital Software Association. Most video games are purchased by adults, and 43 percent of players are women.

Nearly all video games now are rated, labeled as suitable for either young children (age 3 and older), teens (age 13 and older), mature players (age 17 and older) or all ages. But when parents tested the video games, they found the ratings too lenient nearly a quarter of the time, according to the NIMF. Technological advances have made video games more realistic, with lifelike characters performing the actions. Some of the more violent videos depict a shooter dismembering a dead opponent and a sniper gunning down pedestrians.

The impact of these violent games on children constitutes a growing public-health concern, according to Brownback, who pointed to studies by the American Medical Association and prominent psychologists who say media violence causes aggressive behavior in children. "There is no longer a question as to whether exposing children to violent entertainment is a public-health risk" said Brownback. "The question is: What are we going to do about it? What does it take for the entertainment industry, and its licensees and retailers, to stop exposing children to poison?"

RELATED ARTICLE: New TV Show Will Spoof Sitcoms, Not First Family, Claim Creators

President George W. Bush and his family will be the subjects of a sitcom starting in April on the Los Angeles-based Comedy Central cable network. The program -- developed by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, irreverent creators of the animated hit South Park -- is titled That's My Bush and will be broadcast after 10 p.m., a time Comedy Central usually reserves for premiering new shows, says network spokeswoman Lisa Chader.

The live-action series, says Chader, will not be a send-up of the inner workings of the White House, but more "a spoof of the American sitcom." The show's creators claim they would have used the Gore family rather than the Bush family had the election gone the other way.

"It didn't matter whether it was Bush or it was Gore because we're not out to skewer a president; we're out to do something very subversive and actually make you really love this guy," Parker told the Denver Post. "We had been wanting for several years to do a sitcom that sort of ripped on sitcoms, because we hate them so much."

The half-hour program originally was called Family First, but the name was changed after it was determined that the Mormon Church held the rights to that title, having used it for a series of public-service announcements. Chader says the role of Bush's daughters, Barbara and Jenna, declared off-limits to the press, "is still being decided."

Viewers should not expect a program that is like Saturday Night Live, where actors use skits to tee off on the weekly shortcomings of the commander in chief, adds Chader. "What the creators want to do is build a sitcom around the president and how he balances his work with his family life ... what it's like when a fictional cousin comes over to the White House. They want to make President Bush an incredibly likable guy."

By Andrea Billups