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Play GTA and Your Parents will Pay the FineNew Zealand chief censor, Bill Hastings is not giving up the fight against violent video games such as the Grand Theft Auto series. In the meantime, he is not planning to put "police officers in every bedroom". But, soon, some New Zealander folks might be sacrificed and served as "shock value" to other families. Parents who would be caught allowing their 18- children to play video games with 18+ restrictions will be put on trial, where the maximum penalty is a $10,000 fine or three months in prison.
There are plenty of researches about the negative affect of ultra violent video games mainly on minors. At the same time, there are studies revealing that that age restriction tags fail in protecting the age group they strive to protect, so instead of scaring away the children and adolescents, violent games' appeal just grows bigger in their eyes. What can be done to spare the tender young souls from free access to explicit, digitized depictions of gross violence?
Not blocking your kid's access to a forbidden game, even in the privacy of your own home, is a breach of the law. Mr. Hasting justified the new regulation to The Dominion Post (and was quoted by stuff.co.nz). "It would send out a message that the enforcement agency means business."
does your mother know?
And New Zealand censorship certainly means business. New Zealand was the first democratic country to ban a video game - Manhunt (by controversy chaser Rockstar) that allowed players to simulate human slaughtering in rich and variant methods, from suffocating the enemy to death using a plastic bag to prying his head off from the spine – and to convince Ontario province on the other side of the globe to do the same. According to New Zealand law, an individual who would be caught with a copy of Manhunt, will be penalized with a $2,000 fine.
In Canada, on the other hand, they believe that parents who join their children as they play online games, bridge generation gap.
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