Jackass Wants to Put Health Warnings on Videogames
Admittedly, this would be far less of a problem if the jackass in question weren’t Joe Baca, currently serving as a Congressman from California. The man whose job it is to make and approve laws–clearly finding our nation perfect, with no other problems worthy of his attention–wants to add a label which would read on all games rated Teen or higher, according to The Escapist:
“WARNING:
Excessive exposure to violent videogames and other violent media has
been linked to aggressive behavior.” Baca claims that recent studies
from the Pediatrics Journal, the University of Indiana, the University of Missouri and Michigan State University “point to a neurological link between playing violent videogames and aggressive behavior in children and teenagers.”
Keep in mind that for every study which claims there’s a link between videogames and violent behavior, there are a dozen studies which says here aren’t, and that 99.9% of violent game players have no problems whatsoever. Just the ones who are already disturbed. Oh, and this label would be on Teen and Mature games, which parents aren’t supposed to be buying for their kids anyways. Awesome.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.