Congressman proposes cigarette-style warning label on games

  24 Responses to “Congressman proposes cigarette-style warning label on games”

1. Todd says:

   January 13, 2009 at 11:21 am

   WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior by people that really really really want it to be true.

   Fixed it for them.
2. Chris says:

   January 13, 2009 at 11:26 am

   Hmmm… I’m sure we can get better warning labels than this. I would suggest a bill to label “World of Warcraft” with a health warning that reads: “CAUTION! May reduce interest in real world activities like food and work.” 😀
3. Bret says:

   January 13, 2009 at 11:50 am

   Will Animal Crossing come with a warning about increased sociability and inclination towards matching furniture?
4. Anthony Umfer says:

   January 13, 2009 at 1:29 pm

   Seriously? Damn, maybe cigarettes aren’t as bad as I thought…
5. Morgan Ramsay says:

   January 13, 2009 at 2:43 pm

   Raph:

   incorrectly asserts that the link between violent video games and increased aggression in young people is solidly established.

   Actually, there is strong evidence that playing violent video games increases aggression just as there is strong evidence that watching violent movies or football games does the same. The press release, however, is written to be misleading.

   There is not strong evidence that playing violent video games makes players violent. The distinctions between the two are fine and the research does clearly define what “aggression” means. Researchers do not use these terms colloquially.
6. Veronica says:

   January 13, 2009 at 3:01 pm

   Shame on them. A similar bill was passed in Argentina in 2005, it states that all video games have to be labeled with the following phrase: “Excessive exposure [to video games] is detrimental to your health”.
   Of course, the bill doesn’t point out to any supportive research establishing such statement, nor explain the meaning of “detrimental to your health”.
   Specifically to link of violent video game and aggressive behavior, there are mix results about it. They just took those that were convenient for them.
   This warning label aims not only to the game industry but to the film industry as well. “… and other violent media…” Funny they started picking with gaming.
7. Drey says:

   January 13, 2009 at 5:36 pm

   I saw this about him over at Game Politics. Maybe he should clean up his own act before tackling social ills like video games.
8. Ryan Henson Creighton says:

   January 13, 2009 at 6:18 pm

   You can’t have it both ways, folks. Sorry. You can’t say, on one hand, that video games can teach, train, relax, help, etc etc – all positives – and on the other hand flat-out deny that they can hurt or harm your mood or your thought patterns.

   A study just came out showing that playing Tetris helped with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. If we want to claim that victory as an industry, we also have to admit that yes, as with nearly any technology, video games can both hurt and help.

   What are you afraid of if the link is solidly made between video games and violence or aggression? Are you worried someone is going to come and take your games away? Tell you that you’re not allowed to play with your toys any more? Please grow up. This industry is packed with nervous, insecure little boys, and i’m getting tired of it.
9. Morgan Ramsay says:

   January 13, 2009 at 6:31 pm

   From the book Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents:

   Background

   [T]he scientific debate about whether exposure to media violence causes increases in aggressive behavior is over (Anderson, Berkowitz, Donnerstein, Huesmann, Johnson, Linz, Malamuth, and Wartella, 2003; Gentile, 2003; Kirsh, 2006; Potter, 2003) and should have been over 30 years ago (Bushman & Anderson, 2001). The entire body of relevant media violence research stretches back over 50 years and includes studies on violent television, films, video games, music, and even comic books. Populations studied include males and females; young children, adolescents, and adults; criminals and noncriminals; highly aggressive and nonaggressive people. All major types of research methodologies have been used, including experiments, crosssectional correlational studies, longitudinal studies, intervention studies, and meta-analyses.

   A panel of leading media violence researchers organized by Professor Rowell Huesmann (originally at the request of the U.S. Surgeon General) conducted the most comprehensive review to date of media violence effects on aggression and aggression-related variables. This panel found “unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood of aggressive and violent behavior in both immediate and long-term contexts” (Anderson et al., 2003, p. 81).

   Nonetheless, there are numerous unanswered questions in need of additional research.

   Definition

   Human aggression is defined as a) a behavior that is intended to harm another individual, b) the behavior is expected by the perpetrator to have some chance of actually harming that individual, and c) the perpetrator believes that the target individual is motivated to avoid the harm.

   Subtypes

   The first subtype, physical aggression, involves causing harm by direct physical means, such as by hitting, tripping, stabbing, or shooting. Violence is simply one form of physical aggression, at the high end of a severity dimension.

   [I]n recent years there has been a convergence of opinion among psychological scholars that physical aggression should be conceived as existing along a severity continuum ranging from mild (e.g., a pinch) to severe (e.g., shooting), and that violence (or violent behavior) refers to physical aggression toward the severe end of this continuum (e.g., Anderson et al., 2003; Anderson & Huesmann, 2003).

   A second type, verbal aggression, involves causing harm by verbal means, such as by calling a person hurtful names. Verbal aggression also includes written statements (including e-mail, Web pages) that attempt to cause harm or evaluations of others (verbal or written) that are intended to harm the target person.

   A third type, called relational aggression, consists of behaviors that harm others through damage (or the threat of damage) to relationships or to feelings of acceptance, friendship, or group inclusion (Crick, 1996; see Crick et al., 1999, for a review). Children who spread rumors, exclude peers, and engage in other relationship-oriented aggression often are different from those who hit or kick to harm another person.

   (Emphasis added.)
10. Raph says:

    January 13, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    I’ve made exactly your case many times before, Ryan. However, the most recent studies and metastudies that I have read (such as those of Dmitri Williams) contradict what Morgan’s book says. *shrug*
11. Morgan Ramsay says:

    January 13, 2009 at 8:09 pm

    Raph:

    the most recent studies and metastudies that I have read (such as those of Dmitri Williams) contradict what Morgan’s book says. *shrug*

    I looked at around 30 studies, from the 1980s through 2008, that were specific to the domain of video games. The book consolidates the findings of the current research into an accessible format. I also found that contradictions are common.

    Nearly every researcher has concluded that there remain unanswered questions. They also stressed the need for more longitudinal research. You can’t take any one study’s findings as the truth (flavor) of the day. You have to look at the entire body of research and make a judgment, predicting where the research is heading.

    If you look at where the research into general media violence is, as well as the research into violent sports and how they affect spectators and participants, I think it’s pretty obvious that video games do increase aggression. But it’s important to understand what that means because the relationship between video games and aggression does not prove a correlation between video games and violence.

    As the book I quoted explains, there is a severity spectrum. Violence is at the extreme. Unfortunately, when people hear “aggression,” they automatically jump to the colloquial conclusion that increased “aggression” means avid players are likely to be destructive. And, c’mon, you can’t possibly believe that verbal and relational aggression are not prevalent in video game worlds and communities. Play some first-person shooters, will you?
12. Morgan Ramsay says:

    January 13, 2009 at 8:11 pm

    Prefix “violent” to every mention of video games above.
13. Richard Bartle says:

    January 14, 2009 at 12:40 am

    Why stop at games? There are plenty of things that are linked with aggressive behaviour!

    WARNING: Excessive exposure to TV news has been linked to aggressive behaviour.

    WARNING: Excessive exposure to firearms has been linked to aggressive behaviour.

    WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent cartoons has been linked to aggressive behaviour.

    WARNING: Excessive exposure to politics has been linked to aggressive behaviour.

    WARNING: Excessive exposure to traffic congestion has been linked to aggressive behaviour.

    The list goes on indefinitely…

    Richard
14. Morgan Ramsay says:

    January 14, 2009 at 1:17 am

    Richard:

    Why stop at games? There are plenty of things that are linked with aggressive behaviour!

    Yes, that’s true, but Baca and those like him believe that games are toys and the majority of people who play games are children and adolescents.

    Randy Schroeder, in his 1996 article “Playspace Invaders: Huizinga, Baudrillard and Video Game Violence” in the Journal of Popular Culture, elaborated on the various positions regarding video games in general.

    Video games are reputed to be responsible for a number of behavioral and physical problems among players. In addition to aggression, video games are blamed for being addictive, for causing grades to plummet in conjunction with increased anti-social behavior, for displacing time usually spent on other constructive activities, even for “photosensitive epilepsy” (Chaudhary) and “Space Invader’s wrist,” a form of tendonitis.

    Educators express concern that video games teach the wrong set of values. As Provenzo says, in the video-game world, “violence and breaking the rules are not only acceptable, but necessary to win” (32). The auxiliary concern is that video-game culture has replaced the impulse to read and engage in other imaginative and developmental activities. Martin Jaffe, in a 1982 American Planning Association report, claimed that kids “overindulge” in video games (2). These concerns dovetail: video games simultaneously develop dumb kids and inculcate dumb values; violence is offered as a problem-solver to kids who are least able to distinguish between real and imaginary problems.

    But the actual research tradition is contradictory and inconclusive, reflecting numerous theoretical positions:

    1. Video games are basically a societal ill, responsible for all the problems above.

    2. Video games have no benefits, but are not responsible for significant problems, either.

    3. Video games are a neutral technology, capable of good or bad, depending on the actual programming and usage.

    4. Video games are beneficial in an information age, teaching new literacies and skills and providing auxiliary physical benefits.

    Baca and those like him represent the first position.
15. Kifix says:

    January 14, 2009 at 1:35 am

    Well, something kinda the same happened in France some months ago. The government started a video “ad” campaign for children security about the dangers of the internet. In this video (watch it here http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x7p1cz) we see people coming to a house, and asking a woman (the mother) if they can meet her kid. These people represent the dangers of th net. There is group that seem to be skinheads/nazis, a group that represent prostitution and pornography, a guy that seems to be a pedophile (not sure about the english word here, but someone that abuses children) and… a vidéo game character !

    All on on the same level !!! Prostitution, pornography, child abuse, nazism, all together with video games. Really scary…

    The best (imo ^^) video game website wrote an open letter to the woman responsible for the campaign, you can see it here : http://www.gameblog.fr/news_7266_jeu-video-halte-aux-amalgames-en-tv
16. Pam says:

    January 14, 2009 at 3:58 am

    You could just do “WARNING: Waking up can be linked to aggressive behaviour.” I think that covers just about everything, except sleeping, of course.
17. Yukon Sam says:

    January 14, 2009 at 6:52 am

    Humans have always had entertainments that incite strong feelings. Dance, music, drama and art weren’t invented to fill out the PBS broadcast schedule. They came about as mediums for people to explore and express their passions in a way somewhat less destructive than knocking each other around with clubs.

    The Greeks had a word for it: catharsis, a release for strong emotions in a harmless manner. It was one of the most important functions of their theatrical tradition.

    Do we need the same warning label on Shakespeare? Dali? The 1812 Overture? How about Monday Night Football? Or the local Army recruiter?

    This is “Seduction of the Innocent” for the new millenium, and it’s just as transparently sleezy as the original.

    WARNING: Excessive exposure to Congress and other political institutions has been linked to a decreased capacity for rational thought and tendencies to grandstand in the media spotlight.
18. Ryan Henson Creighton says:

    January 14, 2009 at 8:12 am

    i have an answer for video game advocates who say “why video games? Why not books/movies/Pez dispensers?” (Much like someone who’s pulled over for speeding and says “But everyone ELSE was speeding!)

    WARNING: Mild movie spoilers follow.

    The level of violence in violent video games trumps violent movies tenfold. Scanners was a big deal, because that dude’s head exploded. Alien was a big deal, because the creature popped out of that guy’s chest. In The Departed, the hero gets his already-broken arm smashed repeatedly on a table. Hostel was a big deal, because a full hour of the movie was torture porn.

    But a game like Fallout 3, for instance, is MUCH more violent than any of those movies. We’re not talking about single scenes of extreme violence, or even an hour of gore. We’re talking about FORTY hours of non-stop shooting, with exploding heads, amputated limbs, and immolated bodies. The closest thing to it in cinema is, i suppose, something like Kill Bill. But on the whole, video games are far more constant, relentless and overboard in their gratuitous violence than movies.

    Often, mainstream movies will attempt to contextualize their violence. Marcellus Wallus gets man-raped in Pulp Fiction, sure, and it’s traumatizing to watch, but it’s integral to the story. It’s the climax of the rivalry between the two adversaries, who now join together in a common cause (to punish the rapist, samurai-style).

    In video games, there’s far less rhyme or reason to the violence. The violence is often more extreme, and it’s much more relentless. And while movie violence is often parcelled into bite-sized nuggets that move the story forward through a two-hour experience, video games present a non-stop assault on the psyche for uninterrupted durations of n hours.

    If video games are tobacco, movies are Popeye Cigarettes. If movies are a dime bag of marijuana, video games are week-long crystal meth benders.
19. Yukon Sam says:

    January 14, 2009 at 10:48 am

    I am a virtual warrior.

    I have spilled veritable oceans of enemy blood across time and space. With swords, with laser rifles, even with my bare hands, I have butchered millions of my foes without mercy or regret. I have stood as a paladin against hordes of ravenous undead monsters, but I have also cut down Allied soldiers from a German bunker at Normandy. I have launched nuclear weapons against my foes for no better reason than to see what would happen. I have terraformed inhabited planets, scouring them clean of native civilizations so I could place my own colonies. I have felt the adreneline rush through my veins, felt very real anger and fear and despair and triumph.

    And then I go back to the real world, where I kiss my wife, and cuddle with my cats, and where I have not raised a fist in anger against another human being for twenty-some years. And sometimes I go to conventions and meet gamers much like myself, and we have heated arguments about game mechanics while we buy each other beers.

    Oh, I did play paintball once. It was great fun and very intense. It did not induce me to shoot real people with a real gun.

    Playing games, real or virtual, can cause a short-term surge in adreneline which can increase aggression. For normal adults, the maximum harm caused is a bit of irritability when an affectionate kitty jumps in your lap just as you’re trying to execute a tricky combo.

    I’m willing to postulate that watching or playing sports, particularly contact sports, raise aggression levels more sharply than anything seen in even the bloodiest video games. But nobody goes after sports. Athletes and sports fans aren’t a stigmatized subculture, are they? Sports may provoke riots, fistfights, and actual bloodletting, but that doesn’t grab headlines like a crusade against those evil video games, does it?

    Kids are different, which is why we have a rating system. But for adults? Give me a break. The proposed warning is misleading if not demonstrably false, and patently unnecessary in any case.
20. Peter S. says:

    January 14, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    The “fatal flaw” in the studies discussing a relationship between media and agression is alluded to, but never stated. It is this: there is no recognized baseline agression model for human behavior.

    We can say that exposure to certain stimuli causes increased expression of aggression. We cannot say how much agression is normal, and cannot say how much of an increase is, or ought to be, worrisome.

    After all, to extend the analogy, if video games are week-long meth benders, what are high school sports? Mainlining heroin? Playing in a football game is a full-sensory experience of agression, placed into a context where agression is heavily promoted and rewarded, and not by some number on a screen but by friends, family and complete strangers cheering you on.

    To be clear, I AM NOT arguing that sports are bad, just showing where the analogy and argument logically go. Nor am I fleshing this out more, since I’m on my lunch break. Much as I want to get all bitter and talk about us gamers getting picked on by the jocks again… 😛
21. Adrian Lopez says:

    January 14, 2009 at 10:06 pm

    The more I see this kind of stuff, the more I think proposing unconstitutional legislation should carry a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
22. Kerri Knight says:

    January 16, 2009 at 1:29 pm

    Microsoft Word can be used to write violent media, shut it down!

    Take a sledgehammer to all the typewriters!

    Burn all the books!

    As always, I’m firmly a believer that mediated input does have real impact on behavior and physiology, so it either all gets labeled or none of it. Personally I’m not averse to more public interest in the discussion and (hopefully) awareness of such tendencies and maybe even a bit more self-reflection about it.
23. KevinMc says:

    January 18, 2009 at 9:03 am

    WARNING: Excessive exposure to Congress and other political institutions has been linked to a decreased capacity for rational thought and tendencies to grandstand in the media spotlight.

    I like that. I think that if I was ever required to put the warning this gentleman proposes on a game box, I would have that in a box immediately under that warning.

    I think the players would get a kick out of seeing that, somehow… 😉
24. BadMisterFrosty says:

    January 20, 2009 at 3:26 pm

    There is another side as well: it makes smoking look harmless. Maybe that’s the whole point.

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