Author of Byron Report Says "Significant Progress" has Been Made

[Logan Westbrook]

Author of Byron Report Says "Significant Progress" has Been Made

Tanya Byron, the author of a report with recommendations for improving safety for children in digital media has praised the progress made so far.

Written in 2008, the Byron report touched on all aspects of digital life in the UK, including videogames. Byron's recommendation was for the UK government to pick a single rating system for games, rather than using both the BBFC and PEGI ratings.

"In the last two years there has been significant progress on improving children's digital safety which I am pleased to highlight in this report," Byron wrote. "There has been excellent progress made on videogames since 2008, particularly the clarification to the videogames age classification system."

"Having one system of videogame classification will give parents a consistent experience which they can use, along with their knowledge of their child, to make a judgement on which video games are appropriate. This work has been complemented by the updated PEGI labelling guidelines."

It wasn't all good news however, as Byron was disappointed at the lack of educational games hitting the market, and suggested that the government should do more to support education in gaming.

Source: Edge [http://www.edge-online.com/news/byron-hails-"significant-progress]


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[TsunamiWombat]

The only problem with Educational games is they've all been done shittly before, so we're...wary of them. I see kids pounding away at their leapfrogs at stores all the time though, and their DSI's. If Nintendo threw it's hat into educational games like it seems to be planning to do, it would be a boon.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Meh to Educational Games, but at least the internet is now safer than certain Back Alleys.

Calumon: Zoom Zoom! Look left and right, then more Zoom!

 

[Jared]

To be honest she has a pont. One system would be much easier for all involved.

Although progress is always good, people just need to be educated more about what they are buying, especilly parents who know nothing

 

[Doug]

To be honest she has a pont. One system would be much easier for all involved.

Although progress is always good, people just need to be educated more about what they are buying, especilly parents who know nothing

We do have one system now because of this report. PEGI became the standard - whilst I feel the film style logo would be more immendiately recognizable to parents, PEGI is pretty clear too.

And if parents can't work out what the big yellow 16 is on the box, they are beyond education's help, methinks.

As for the educational games, there probably are plenty on the market, their just all terrible because they always forget the 'fun' and 'game' parts of 'educational game'.

 

[Doug]

You know what game has actually taught me a bit about Itallian histroy? 'SCreed II. Just making common games more historically accurate would be a boon to educating people.

Yes, but its not a kids game, so whilst is has alot of educational value, it can't be considered an educational game because a) Its not educating the target audience, and b) they mix in fiction with the fact, making it possible to confuse the fiction with fact and vice versa.

 

[UnravThreads]

It's good to see some news like this. I'm getting bored of "X sues Y over Situation Z" or "GAMES ARE TEH EVULZ".
Last year (I think) the PEGI rating was given legal, enforceable status which means that it's now on the same level as BBFC. But as far as I know it's not common knowledge, so I think the Government and/or PEGI should be pushing to get the law known.
As for educational games; We have the Wii and the DS, and they'd be absolutely perfect for it.

 

[The_Decoy]

I always found the total war series was actually pretty educational concerning history and geography

And I'm glad this report didn't give games bad press, always nice to see my government isn't totally incompetent.

 

[tkioz]

The problem with "educational" games is ... well they are freaking boring, that is if you only look at ones marketed as educational.

I think the major problem reports like this have is they don't consider games themselves educational unless they are bleeding obvious about it (i.e maths for kids!), when a lot of games are very educational, lets take an RTS like Dawn of War for example, that game is very educational.

They'll poo poo and say "it's all blood and guts how can it be educational!!!!" but if they look deeper they'll see all the complex skills a player needs to succeed in it, just look at the skill set involved in managing resources and positioning your forces for the best results.

Hell take a look at games like Assassin's Creed and what's its face the one with Death from last year with it's puzzles and patterns.

That's without looking at games like the Civilisation or Settlers series, imagine if you could convince 10-12 year olds to give them a try or two, it's not just about ruling the world, it's about keeping it running.

A great many games are educational, so when reports like this say there is a lack of "educational" games I sneer and say "you don't know what your talking about", because honestly I remember being a kid and I had the most fun in my classes when I didn't know I was learning.

 

[Doug]

You know what game has actually taught me a bit about Itallian histroy? 'SCreed II. Just making common games more historically accurate would be a boon to educating people.

Yes, but its not a kids game, so whilst is has alot of educational value, it can't be considered an educational game because a) Its not educating the target audience, and b) they mix in fiction with the fact, making it possible to confuse the fiction with fact and vice versa.

Verily, but it's a start. Imagine a kid's game where you're a messenger or some other non-violent position during major events in history: Either side of the American Revolution, Roman, Greek and oher eras of European expansion and imperialism, or even focussing on famous people like composers, kings, revolutionaries, etc. where the game is standard fair, but the NPCs talk about and do important historical things. Shoot, a physics game where you create and manipulate devices such as small rockets would be great.

About the closest you get is Phun [http://www.phunland.com/wiki/Home] - and its free!

Edit:
Oh... apparently they have an improved and more user friendly commerical version: http://www.algodoo.com/wiki/Home

 

[Sevre]

I consider the Total War series educational, it'll teach you more about military history than school.

 

[Treblaine]

While I can appreciate Byron's sentiment for educational video games it's not like there are a compete lack of educational games like the many DS and Wii titles on platforms which are respectively the highest selling portable and home consoles.

And at the same time when was the last time you saw an "educational" Movie in the Cinema or topping the DVD sales charts? No documentaries ever make it onto prime time TV slots and comedy quiz shows which really push the definition of what could be considered educational.

Then again, I can appreciate this is not all relative, every entertainment industry could do with providing more education to children.

But then again 5-days a week 9-till-3 all children get educated, is it not surprising that the few hours they get for entertainment that they DON'T choose even more education?

 

[Sixties Spidey]

ALL video games as a whole are for the most part, edutainment. I mean, look at your nearest RPG game like Fallout.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

You know what game has actually taught me a bit about Itallian histroy? 'SCreed II. Just making common games more historically accurate would be a boon to educating people.

Yes, but its not a kids game, so whilst is has alot of educational value, it can't be considered an educational game because a) Its not educating the target audience, and b) they mix in fiction with the fact, making it possible to confuse the fiction with fact and vice versa.

Verily, but it's a start. Imagine a kid's game where you're a messenger or some other non-violent position during major events in history: Either side of the American Revolution, Roman, Greek and oher eras of European expansion and imperialism, or even focussing on famous people like composers, kings, revolutionaries, etc. where the game is standard fair, but the NPCs talk about and do important historical things. Shoot, a physics game where you create and manipulate devices such as small rockets would be great.

About the closest you get is Phun [http://www.phunland.com/wiki/Home] - and its free!

Edit:
Oh... apparently they have an improved and more user friendly commerical version: http://www.algodoo.com/wiki/Home

It's called Darkest of Days, guys. May not be good looking but that's an awesome concept right there for both education and entertainment.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

As I've said to my MP, the one thing that's going to stop this is the Digital Economy bill, which threatens all British ISPs.

 

[Doug]

ALL video games as a whole are for the most part, edutainment. I mean, look at your nearest RPG game like Fallout.

How so? It teaches kids that nuclear power is wide spread, portable, and will explode when shot..?

 

[Sixties Spidey]

ALL video games as a whole are for the most part, edutainment. I mean, look at your nearest RPG game like Fallout.

How so? It teaches kids that nuclear power is wide spread, portable, and will explode when shot..?

No no no. As much as I wish it would teach kids about Rocket Science, it certainly isn't the case. I'm talking about in terms of numbers. This item takes up a certain fraction of how much I can actually carry. If I drop this item, I would get this item, but I also need space to fit in some healing items. What else can I drop to cram these items?

Same thing with VATS.

I have this much action points, and I have to kill this douchebag with a radio-active twinky. I don't have enough points right now, so I'll evade his attacks, waiting for my points to go up, or take medicine right now. But I have this much of a chance to shoot him in the head and kill him for good, but I could cripple him, which means less chance he can kill me right away. What method should I use and why?

Things like that.

 

[Doug]

ALL video games as a whole are for the most part, edutainment. I mean, look at your nearest RPG game like Fallout.

How so? It teaches kids that nuclear power is wide spread, portable, and will explode when shot..?

No no no. As much as I wish it would teach kids about Rocket Science, it certainly isn't the case. I'm talking about in terms of numbers. This item takes up a certain fraction of how much I can actually carry. If I drop this item, I would get this item, but I also need space to fit in some healing items. What else can I drop to cram these items?

Same thing with VATS.

I have this much action points, and I have to kill this douchebag with a radio-active twinky. I don't have enough points right now, so I'll evade his attacks, waiting for my points to go up, or take medicine right now. But I have this much of a chance to shoot him in the head and kill him for good, but I could cripple him, which means less chance he can kill me right away. What method should I use and why?

Things like that.

Ahhh, righto - so, yeah, virtually every game teaches stuff like that, heh.