{"id":721,"date":"2008-03-27T07:00:31","date_gmt":"2008-03-27T14:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/main\/2008\/03\/warning-stupidity-will-fuck-you-up"},"modified":"2013-02-23T04:50:26","modified_gmt":"2013-02-23T04:50:26","slug":"warning-stupidity-will-fuck-you-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/2008\/03\/27\/warning-stupidity-will-fuck-you-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Warning: Stupidity will fuck you up."},"content":{"rendered":"

Computer games to get cigarette-style health warnings<\/p>\n

Video games will be forced to carry cigarette-style health warnings under proposals to protect children from unsuitable digital material.
\n
\nThe report, commissioned by the Prime Minister in response to a growing moral panic about video games, will conclude that they can harm the development of children\u2019s beliefs and value systems and desensitise them to violence. It will also recommend that retailers who sell video games to anyone under the age rating on the box should face a hefty fine or up to five years in prison, The Times has learnt.<\/p>\n

The report, written by Tanya Byron, the clinical psychologist and television parenting guru, is also expected to address the dangers of children\u2019s use of the internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents are afraid to let their children out,\u201d she said. \u201cSo they keep them at home, but allow them to take risks online.\u201d<\/p>\n

She will call for a massive campaign to educate parents, teachers and childcarers about how to ensure that children get maximum benefit from the digital world without being exposed to its dangers.<\/p>\n

This will include a drive for greater awareness of inappropriate content such as pornography. Parents will be encouraged to monitor children\u2019s online use and keep computers in living rooms rather than bedrooms. Dr Byron, a Times columnist who has two children aged 9 and 12, said that video and online games could have enormous benefits \u201cin terms of learning and development\u201d, but that there was too little awareness among parents about the associated risks they posed and how to manage those risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would not send your child to the pool without teaching them to swim, so why would you let them online without teaching them to manage the risks?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dr Byron said that the current classification system for video games was confusing and not tough enough. At present only games showing sex or gross violence require an age rating from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and fewer than 2 per cent of titles carry an 18-certificate.<\/p>\n

The alternative Pan-European Game Information system is considered to be ineffective because it uses symbols that are confusing and distributors effectively chose their own ratings by filling in a form about their product.<\/p>\n

Dr Byron wants a single statutory classification system. Ratings would have to be displayed prominently on all packaging materials, like health warnings on cigarettes, as well as on shop display cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to make child digital safety a priority. If you are under 18, you should not be able to buy an \u201818\u2019 game and if you are under 12, you should not be able to buy a \u201812\u2019 game,\u201d she said. She also wants all games consoles to contain blocking mechanisms that would enable parents to prevent children playing unsuitable games on them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other news, I added a new product to my store. I’m having second thoughts about it, though, because I’ve been told that people might not understand it without there being words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Computer games to get cigarette-style health warnings Video games will be forced to carry cigarette-style health warnings under proposals to protect children from unsuitable digital material.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,79,162],"class_list":["post-721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bib","tag-cafepress","tag-games","tag-stupidity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3bMfN-bD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1804,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions\/1804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.coffeechick.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}