Issue no. 401 - 26 July 2009

• The behavioural effects of video games (Economist)
  Two studies showing that video games have a bright side as well as a dark one have been carried out recently.

Issue no. 400 - 5 July 2009

• UK - Digital Britain for Gamers: Age Ratings and tax breaks (Guardian)
  Two issues raised in Lord Carter's review affect the games industry in particular First, there is some suggestion that the UK Government will support a tax breaks system like the ones already in place in Canada and South Korea. While the tax breaks are only alluded to in the Digital Britain document, many insiders are cautiously celebrating the possibility of implementation. Second, and more controversially, the Government has chosen to back the PEGI system of self-regulation rather than the homegrown, government-affiliated, top-down BBFC's. A long debate has been raging behind the scenes for several years between the two regulation bodies, and many in the industry will welcome the decision. Although less well-recognised in the UK, the PEGI scheme is a pan-European, independent opt-in facility backed by 28 countries. BBFC have not responded well. see Digital Britain: UK to implement PEGI system for video games classification (Daily Telegraph).

• UK - PEGI ratings 'need improvement' (BBC)
  The videogame trade association, Tiga, say the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) rating systems has "room for improvement". Tiga's chief, Dr Richard Wilson, said changes were needed to make the logos "instinctively recognisable".

Issue no. 398 - 13 April 2009

• DE - Suchtgefährdende Computerspiele: Verbote für Jugendliche gefordert (Heise)
  Nachdem die Ergebnisse einer Studie des Kriminologischen Forschungsinstituts Niedersachsen (KFN) bekannt wurden, erhält die Debatte über gewaltverherrlichende und suchtgefährdende Computerspiele neuen Auftrieb. Das Institut des Kriminologen und ehemaligen niedersächsischen Justizministers Christian Pfeiffer legt am heutigen Montag eine Untersuchung vor, nach der mehr als 14.000 Neuntklässler nach medizinischen Kriterien süchtig nach Computerspielen sind. Weitere mehr als 23.000 Jugendliche seien stark gefährdet. Ausuferndes Spielen allein führe noch nicht automatisch zu einer Abhängigkeit, aber das Spielen von Online-Rollenspielen verstärke das Risiko. Das gelte vor allem für das Spiel "World of Warcraft"

• EU - Protection of consumers, in particular minors, in respect of the use of video games (EP)
  Adoption in plenary of a resolution based on an own-initiative report drafted by Toine MANDERS (ALDE, NL) welcoming the Commission Communication on the protection of consumers, in particular minors, in respect of the use of video games. The report calls on the Commission and Member States, in cooperation with the industry, to explore the merit of developing a 'red button' which can be included on (mobile) consoles or game devices and computers and which disables a certain game or which can control access to a game during certain hours or certain parts of the game. It also calls for additional efforts in this respect, including the possibility of integrating an acoustic warning into the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) age rating system, and counts on the professional game sector systematically to integrate access models for online games in order to ensure that minors are not exposed to harmful content online.

Issue no. 397 - 8 March 2009

• EU - European Parliament report backs video games for children (BBC)
  Video games should have a "red button" parents can press to disable inappropriate games, says a report. Drafted by a European parliament committee, the report backs games for children but says parents need help policing how and when they are played. The committee said games have a "broadly beneficial effect" on the mental development of children. The report comes as research shows that more than half of European children are unsupervised when using computers. The report backed the European Pan European Game Information system (PEGI) and called for it to be strengthened and win more support from member nations. See Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Own-initiative report A6-0051/2009 Report on the protection of consumers, in particular minors, in respect of the use of video games by Toine Manders MEP.

Issue no. 394 - 7 December 2008

• SE - Violent video games alter childrens's heart rates: study (The Local)
  A new Swedish study shows that playing violent video games can alter children?s heart rates, raising concerns about violent games' long term physiological effects on youngsters. In a collaborative project, researchers from Stockholm University, Uppsala University and the Karolinska Institutet asked a group of 19 boys aged twelve to fifteen to play two different computer games, one specifically violent, the other not. The data illustrated that after playing the violent game, the heart rates of the boys were no longer regular.

Issue no. 391 - 31 August 2008

• UK - Row over video games ratings plan (BBC)
  Planned changes to the way video games are rated have sparked a row about who should be in charge of giving games their official age classification. Culture Minister Margaret Hodge has announced a consultation on whether the ratings for games should replicate the system for movies. But games makers oppose plans, backed by MPs, for the British Board of Film Classification to rate games as well. The games industry wants its own voluntary code to be made official.

Issue no. 390 - 20 July 2008

• UK - Youths 'buy violent games online' (BBC)
  Children are able to illegally buy violent video games through online auction websites, the UK's Trading Standards Institute has said. Almost 90% of retailers tested by the association sold under-18s games, such as Manhunt 2, through such outlets. Traders supplying games to an under-age person in breach of official classifications can face a fine or up to six months in jail.

Issue no. 389 - 22 June 2008

• DE - Spielen im Netz. Zur Systematisierung des Phänomens "Online-Games" (Hans-Bredow-Institut)
  Jan Schmidt / Stephan Dreyer / Claudia Lampert: (pdf-file, 1056 KB) Juni 2008.

Issue no. 388 - 1 June 2008

• EU - Video games: let's go for PEGI Plus! (Europa)
  Speech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media, Annual Conference Interactive Software Federation of Europe, Brussels, 7 May 2008.

• IT - La Procura indaga sul videogame violento (Il Tirreno)
  Violenze e rapine per essere capomafia: a Livorno GTA IV (Grand Theft Auto) finisce sott'inchiesta. Il reato ipotizzato è istigazione a delinquere. Così, GTA, ovvero Gran Theft Auto IV, il videogioco più famoso e venduto (settanta milioni di copie) finisce sotto inchiesta. La Procura di Livorno ne ha fatte acquisire due copie e ora le farà analizzare a degli esperti.

Issue no. 387 - 12 May 2008

• EU - Commission Communication on Video Games (RAPID)
  The European video games sector is dynamic, with expected revenue of € 7.3 billion by the end of 2008. However, public concerns that video games can cause aggressive behaviour, heightened by school shootings such as in Helsinki (Finland, November 2007), have led several national authorities to ban or block video games such as "Manhunt 2". In response, the European Commission has surveyed existing measures protecting minors from harmful video games across the 27 EU Member States. 20 EU Member States now apply PEGI (Pan European Games Information), an age-rating system developed by industry, with EU support, since 2003. In the Commission's view, industry must invest more to strengthen and in particular to regularly update the PEGI system so that it becomes a truly effective pan-European tool. Also, industry and public authorities should step up cooperation to make classification and age rating systems better known and to avoid confusion caused by parallel systems. A Code of Conduct for retailers should be drawn up within two years on sales of video games to minors. See Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the protection of consumers, in particular minors, in respect of the use of video games COM(2008) 207 final.

• UK - How video games are rated (BBC)
  Given that the average gamer is aged 23 or above, it's perhaps no surprise that a lot of games are rated over-18 only. But who are the guardians of taste and decency and how do they decide a videogame's age rating? In the UK, video games are classified by two bodies - the Pan European Game Information system (Pegi) and the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) - both of which have overlapping roles.

• The power of play on the internet (BBC)
  Game design and social networks are merging into one of the most persuasive forces on the net. That assertion was made by a string of speakers at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

• US - Games don't create killers, new book says (Reuters)
  Playing video games does not turn children into deranged, blood-thirsty super-killers, according to a new book by a pair of Harvard researchers. Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson, a husband-and-wife team at Harvard Medical School, detail their views in "Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do," which promises to reshape the debate on the effects of video games on kids.

Issue no. 386 - 20 April 2008

• EU - Commission survey on the protection of minors with regard to video games in all EU Member States (RAPID)
  With the average age of video gamers now exceeding 23 years, the European Commission has been analysing the steps made by industry players and public authorities across the 27 EU Member States to provide clear rules for the protection of minors from video games more suited to adults. In its Communication "On the protection of consumers, in particular minors, in respect of the use of video games", the Commission will also be calling on all stakeholders to raise parents' awareness on existing self-regulatory age-rating systems and make them more effective in all 27 EU Member States.

QuickLinks consists of

• a free newsletter appearing approximately every two to three weeks. The newsletter is distributed by electronic mail through an "announcement only" mailing list.
• a Web site with frequent updates, an events page, news items organised by category as well as chronologically by issue and full text search.