British MEP Backs The “Red Button”
Glenis Willmott, member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands, is supporting the Euro suggestion that consoles should come equipped with a “red button” allowing parents to shut down their childrens’ games.
The idea was put forward in a recent report for the European Parliament’s Internal Market Committee, which also called for stronger legislation on the retail of violent games.
On her website, Ms. Willmott spoke out in favour of the button:
‘œParents should have the chance to choose what their children are playing. Not all video games are suited to all age groups and there may be harmful effects on young minds.
‘œA red button fitted to consoles, computers and other gaming devices would offer parents the chance to control access or even disable games with inappropriate content.’
Ignoring the fact that such a button already exists (hint: it’s called the power button) and that the three modern consoles are equipped with parental controls, surely parents “have the chance to choose” what games their children are playing when they purchase them?
Instead of creating nonsensical magic buttons, perhaps Ms. Willmott and the European Parliament should concentrate on stopping parents buying 18 rated games for their under-age children. Or would that be too sensible?
Via: GamePolitics.
News Tags: Europe, parents, Politics, red button
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because
pulling the plug
pushing the power button
taking out the disk
taking away the controller
slapping (and then raping) the child, or
talking to them about proper gaming
is too hard to do…
I don’t understand parents who complain about violent games, and yet refuse to use the parental controls on the systems…..
Thing is though one MEP that is part of the EU “Parliament” is hardly going to make a difference. Mainly because even though it is called “Parliament” they don’t actually decide anything, they’re just there to pass judgement.
having a big button on a console to enable parental controls would mean that you also end up with a button that can de-activate parental controls in the same spot !
Parents who are not able to either supervise their kids (how much they play, what they play, which games are appropriate) should not buy consoles to their kid period.
We have warnings that are clear enough on games, but the console box should be the box that is totally covered with warnings !!
What’s a button?
Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s try to force console manufacturers to add something that already exists, except let’s give it a really stupid moniker and completely ignore the actual problem!
Oh wait…