Grand Theft Auto IV Addiction Link To Criminal Rampage
May 31, 2008 by SPCS
Filed under Computer games, Youth Crime
Rampage blamed on game obsession
“Reid [the offender] was hardwired for violence and anti-social behaviour and programmed by his recreational pursuits” [involving the game Grand Theft Auto].
The Dominion Post Saturday, 31 May 2008
Like a character from Grand Theft Auto, the game he played compulsively, Tim Reid went on a rampage, stole a police car, and left a policeman unconscious and bleeding on the roadside.
Yesterday, his lawyer Chris Nicholls said Reid was remorseful for what happened to Sergeant Kevin Wellington in New Plymouth on December 29 last year, but he was a product of his upbringing.
He committed violent offences and compulsively played Grand Theft Auto.
Mr Nicholls said a video game that showed violence toward police was a public safety concern, with the game promoting the behaviour.
Tim Henare James Junior Reid, 25, of Mt Victoria, Wellington pleaded guilty to aggravated wounding, escaping custody, reckless driving, dangerous driving, unlawfully taking a motor vehicle and two charges of failing to stop, breach of supervision orders and being an unlicensed driver.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4566395a23955.html
Application for Leave re Grand Theft Auto IV (unedited version)
May 30, 2008 by SPCS
Filed under Announcement, Application For Leave, Censor, Computer games, Uncategorized, Violence, Youth Crime
The Society has sought leave under s. 47(2)(e) of the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993 (“the Act”), to apply to the Film and Literature Board of Review (“the Board”) for a review of the classification of the highly controversial console game Grand Theft Auto IV (unedited US version) [also known as or GTA 4]. As noted in our application for leave dated 27 May 2008, the unedited game was classified R18 by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (“the OFLC”) on the 21st May 2008.
Grand Theft Auto IV: Who is the NZ distributor profiting from this offensive “Crime-Promoting Game”?
May 19, 2008 by SPCS
Filed under Censorship & New Technology, Computer games, Violence, Youth Crime
Grand Theft Auto IV (also known as GTA 4) – a computer game formatted for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 – was launched on April 29, 2008 and sold nearly 2.9 million copies in the United States in its first five days.1 The game – made by Two’s Rockstar studio – with first-week worldwide sales forecast of up to $US400 million, was submitted to the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) on the 4th of February 2008 by the Film and Video Labelling Body Inc (FVLB).
The computer game’s distributor, the applicant to the FVLB, recorded on the application form, its identity as “TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE”. All other details relating to the company were deleted from the form by the Chief Censor, Bill Hastings, when he provided the application form to the Society, in response to its Official Information Request (OIR). The applicant’s contact person, return street address for the publication and contact telephone number, were all deleted.
The Society Investigates……..
Is there a causal-effect between exposure to video game violence and violent behaviour?
May 11, 2008 by SPCS
Filed under Computer games, Television Violence, Violence, Youth Crime
Video Game Violence and Public Policy
David Walsh, Ph.D.
National Institute on Media and the Family
Concern about violent video and computer games is based on the assumption that they contribute to aggression and violence among young players. That conclusion was originally based on the extensive body of research about the effects of television violence on children’s behavior. Prominent organizations like the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Medical Association have all concluded that the scientific evidence shows a cause-effect relationship between television violence and aggression among the children and youth who watch it. Based on this research, many social scientists have hypothesized that we should expect video games to have an even greater impact for the following four reasons.
http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html Read more
Chief Censor’s Office Report on Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA 4)
May 9, 2008 by SPCS
Filed under Censorship & New Technology, Computer games, Moral Values, Uncategorized, Youth Crime
Dr. Craig Anderson: Violent Video Games and Aggression
December 9, 2007 by SPCS
Filed under Censorship & New Technology, Computer games, Family, Violence, Youth Crime
Dr. Craig Anderson from the University of Iowa is one of the most frequently cited and published researchers in the field of video game violence. Anderson’s work has been used in a variety of venues from scholarly publications to State Supreme Court arguments. Anderson research was used in the Illinois video game legislation defense where he was described as, “The nation’s pre-eminent researcher on the effect of exposure to violent video games.” Anderson’s work has been published in a multiple books, from Children in the Digital Age: Influences of Electronic Media on Development (2002) to his own Violent Video Games Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research and Public Policy (2006).
Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents Theory, Research, and Public Policy (Oxford University Press, 2006)
December 9, 2007 by SPCS
Filed under Censorship & New Technology, Computer games, Violence, Youth Crime
by Craig A. Anderson, Douglas A. Gentile and Katherine E. Buckley
Description
Violent video games are successfully marketed to and easily obtained by children and adolescents. Even the U.S. government distributes one such game, America’s Army, through both the internet and its recruiting offices. Is there any scientific evidence to support the claims that violent games contribute to aggressive and violent behavior?
Anderson, Gentile, and Buckley first present an overview of empirical research on the effects of violent video games, and then add to this literature three new studies that fill the most important gaps. They update the traditional General Aggression Model to focus on both developmental processes and how media-violence exposure can increase the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both short- and long-term contexts. Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents also reviews the history of these games’ explosive growth, and explores the public policy options for controlling their distribution. Anderson et al. describe the reaction of the games industry to scientific findings that exposure to violent video games and other forms of media violence constitutes a significant risk factor for later aggressive and violent behavior. They argue that society should begin a more productive debate about whether to reduce the high rates of exposure to media violence, and delineate the public policy options that are likely be most effective.
Violent Computer Games and Youth Crime. Is there a link?
November 30, 2007 by SPCS
Filed under Computer games, Youth Crime
The NZ Herald reports: “Violent Xbox video games are being fingered by a top police officer as a possible cause of rising violence among young people.
“Superintendent Bill Harrison, national manager of police youth services, says youth violence rates have jumped in the past two or three years throughout the Western world, coinciding with the rise of new products such as the Xbox.”
See full story: Video violence beyond a game: top cop
Wednesday November 28, 2007. By Simon Collins
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10478781&ref=rss
Society Raises Concerns Over Dissemination of Objectionable Internet Content
August 13, 2007 by admin
Filed under Censorship & New Technology, Computer games, Moral Values, Violence
Media Release 13/08/07
On Thursday night last week The Australian Prime Minister John Howard announced a A$189 million package to deal with the growing problems of internet porn and dissemination of, and availability of, objectionable content to minors via Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The tough measures adopted by the Howard government to stamp out two evils – accessibility to hardcore porn and alcohol abuse in Northern Aboriginal communities – because of their injurious effect on the “public good” and links to child abuse, has been matched by his latest measures. Every Australian public library as well as individual family will be provided with free software to filter internet content to prevent children downloading pornography and other offensive material, service providers will work alongside the government to filter pornography at its source, a ‘black list’ of pornographic sites will be established, and privacy laws will be altered so that sex offenders cannot ‘hide’ on the internet and chatroom sex predators will be rigorously hunted down and prosecuted. In addition a seven-day-a-week hotline will help parents put filters on their computers to block material that is passed on to home computers via ISPs.
OFLC Ban on Reservoir Dogs Computer Game
July 11, 2006 by admin
Filed under Censor, Computer games, Violence
Media Release 11/07/06
The Society is pleased that the Office of Film and Literature Classification (see Scoop 7 July) has applied the censorship law correctly and banned the computer game Reservoir Dogs that is based on the Quentin Tarantino’s ultra-violent sick film of the same name. However, the Society’s president Mike Petrus says:
“The OFLC has a very poor track record when it it comes to applying the law correctly – in particular its failure to apply section 3 of the Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act 1993 (dealing with the definition of “objectionable” content) to films like Baise-Moi and Irreversible depicting sexual violence and large numbers of videos and DVDs where women are sexually degraded, demeaned and dehumanised.”
