Congressman Wants Health Warning Labels For Games

[Gamer137]

How many times do they need to humiliate themslves for us? Even on the U.S. Department of Justice website, it states that violent crimes have gone down since the early 90's, around the time Mortal Kombat came out, the first massivly popular violent video games. Video game consumption has gone up while violence leves go down. Where is the negative link? It is positive if anything.

http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/gvc.htm

 

[meatloaf231]

So he wants to put blatant lies as fact in a warning label.

How on earth did this guy get elected?

 

[John Stalvern]

This just reinforces my belief that California doesn't know what it wants to be.

 

[SeaCalMaster]

I always hate it when people use the argument that playing video games is related to increased aggression in young people. Maybe aggressive young people like to play violent video games and not the other way around.

hate to break it to ya man but its a fact, exposure to violence DOES make people more aggressive. how much more aggressive is based opn a lot of factors but mostly how much exposure and the particular person, but its not just some researcher blowing crap out of their ass like some politicians.

[citation needed]

and lastly, the vice president does act as the head of the senate last i checked.

It's mostly a ceremonial title. Yes, the Vice President is the President of the Senate. That is not at all the same as saying that he "runs the Senate," as Gov. Palin suggested. If any one Senator runs the Senate, it would be the Majority Leader.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. The only game that is actually detrimental to one's health is World of Warcraft. The warning labels should stay off of everything else.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Kind of funny they've yet to give us real evidence of all these claims.

 

[NiceGurl_14]

This is a good way to lose a lot of votes (there is an established gaming community in the US) and we do vote. It's not exactly wise to get on the bad side of a gamer. we have connections, ~evil laugh~ oops did I do that out loud...

 

[new_age_reject]

Can I please change this one bit for more comic effect:

"Meanwhile research continues to show a proven link between being human and increased aggression"

Well said brother.
Health warning for games is pointless, we all know we are gonna get fat if we just sit on our asses and play games.

 

[Wyatt]

http://www.videogamevoters.org/

great sight to join, been a member for a year or so now and they dont drive you nuts with spam. i especialy like the part where they follow your local politics and give you contact numbers (as well as form letters, if your too stupid/lazy to write your own) to E-mail your reps with. we in New York State got a bill pulled last fall in our Senate that was much like this one by E-mail bombing our reps office with help from that sight.

polititions often pass feel good bills because they think no one is guna pay attention, but if you show them you ARE paying attention they will generaly back off leaving the true nuts in office standing by themselves without the votes to actualy DO anything.

im not usualy one to advocate a sight like this, lord knows there are enough kooks out in the world that start a 'club' and want everyone to join thinking they will end up with 'ultimate POWA' or some shit, but these guys so far have been legit, meaning they dont spam me with crap i dont want or care about, dont ask me for money, and offer real and useful information about Video games and our legal process.

if you actualy care, join em, who knows your 'voice' might just get heard someplace besides a games forum. someplace that actualy might count in the real world.

 

[ratix2]

first off the head of the senate does more than just vote when there is a 50-50 vote. they begin and end each meeting and serve as a moderator among a few other things. granted, they are not in control of the senate, but the head of the senate is basically the same thing as the speaker of the house (minus the fact that they dont get a vote).

anyway, FACT is that video games and other media DO cause people to become more aggressive. as a former psychology major im familar with a lot of studies supporting this and only a few studies disproving this. the most famous one is a canadian study done on movies, you may want to argue that movies arent video games but another FACT is that games get people into them more than movies do. video games make people more aggressive, THATS why there is a ratings system and it DOES work if people pay attention to it.

 

[BIGpanda]

I'm just finding it strange that a university in missouri had the nerve to talk about anything violent...

 

[Wyatt]

but the head of the senate is basically the same thing as the speaker of the house (minus the fact that they dont get a vote).

id say that the fact they dont get to vote is the only importiant point that need be made. since the Senates only function (as well as the house) IS to vote, if you cant vote your meaningless.

your argument is like trying to say a NASCAR fan is almost the same thing as a NASCAR driver except they dont get to drive a car.

 

[scotth266]

Alrighty then. Just fly in the face of the fact that there STILL ISN'T PROOF that videogames destabilize children enough to make them into killers...

[/Jingoism]

Anyway I believe this is unconstitutional because it is slander. There has been overwhelming evidence that the only people affected negatively by violent videogames are the people who are already showing uncontrolled agressive and violent tendencies. Everyone else is perfectly fine, however. So putting a label on a game that makes a blatant falsification of data like this is indeed a violation of the First Amendment.

Right on all counts! A fine post.

 

[MsDevin92]

Really, this shouldn't bother me. So some fuckwit wants to slap another pointless and totally-ignored label on the box, o whell. Cigarettes have in my mind proven that no number of warnings slapped on a package will change whether or not people purchase something. The thing about this that does bother me is the "WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent videogames and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior." bullshit.

That statement is an outright lie. No unbiased study I have ever seen has ever found a link between violent media and violence in children. I've seen plenty of biased studies, but you can't trust the results of those. I've seen unbiased studies which concluded no link could be found, which isn't saying there isn't one, but that there surely is no proof. But no, to make that statement as fact is an outright lie and I greatly protest the placement of lies as such because you never know where it will end. Don't be surprised if you start seeing health-fanatic, moralistic, or commercialist lies popping up shortly after...


On the cover of any meat product - "Animals were brutally tortured to produce this product"
On the front of adult materials - "Viewing this product is an affront against God"
or on every can of Pepsi - "Whitens teeth 50% better than other Cola drinks"

Oh come now, that would never happen. Everybody knows Coca-Cola is superior. /shot

Also, in response to this article, I'm going to go beat my head against a wall and suffer a concussion just so I can blame this guy. IN FACT, we should put health warning labels on idiots like this: Exposure to stupid, gimmicky political practices can lead to increased levels of stupid.