Violence here, violence there, violence, violence everywhere! Too many video games are too violent, so they say. And who's saying it this time but the Pope himself?
Ever since the video game industry began growing in earnest, a lot of people have complained about the increase of violence in games. Because of that, the games now support age warnings, but it is very hard to keep those regulations when almost anyone can buy or download the games.
The World Communications Day is arranged every year to make sure the Pope gets out to the people. This year’s subject was Children and the Media: A Challenge for Education, which had its focus on the effects today’s media have on the children. One of the biggest segments of Pope Benedict XVI's statement concerned violent video games and how to stop them before they reach the children.
He talks a lot about how the church, parents and teachers must reach out to make sure that children do not get to play these games. That the media should be used to educate rather than promoting violence.
”This heartfelt wish of parents and teachers to educate children in the ways of beauty, truth and goodness can be supported by the media industry only to the extent that it promotes fundamental human dignity, the true value of marriage and family life, and the positive achievements and goals of humanity.”According to the Pope, the responsibility falls not only to the teachers and parents of the children, but also to the church. They must unite to stop these games and the negative, violent media from getting in the hands of the young.
”Any trend to produce programmes and products - including animated films and video games - which in the name of entertainment exalt violence and portray anti-social behaviour or the trivialization of human sexuality is a perversion, all the more repulsive when these programmes are directed at children and adolescents. How could one explain this ‘entertainment’ to the countless innocent young people who actually suffer violence, exploitation and abuse?”
Links
Vatican.va - The statement
