It's not all bad

Violence in movies/video games/TV is consuming advocacy groups and parents and others who feel like protesting things is a good idea - it has been for a long while. I feel that most of the time the people doing the protests are more worried about being heard than by saying accurate things. Problems are pointed out, but not solved and blame is inaccurately placed.

Recently there was a coup in the world of too-much-violence-in-the-media. Many of you know that there are ratings on video games, (E - Everyone, T - Teen, M - Mature, AO - Adults Only, RP - Rating Pending), but far less of you may know that there is a body of people who rate game ratings for parents. This organization is called The National Institute on Media and the Family and they have been giving out report cards for the video game industry for the last ten years. They keep an eye on what types of games are being released, how the developers advertise, how stores sell and keep tabs on mature games, and how parents treat their kids' video game habits. I usually hate groups like these because they devolve into ridiculous satires of themselves. (Give this group time and maybe I'll be proven wrong.) But seeing things like this year's report card gives me hope that this group won't fall victim to radical bashing and unwarranted fear mongering.

This year's report card was very interesting and it proves that these people are really thinking and trying to get their goals achieved in positive ways. Here's a rundown:

ESRB ratings: A (how well the ratings reflect in-game content)
ESRB rating education: A (how well the public is educated on the ratings system)
Retailer ratings enforcement: B+ (do retailers refrain from selling M-rated games to kids)
Game console manufacturers: A (how good are the parental controls built into consoles)
Parental involvement: Incomplete (do parents check out what their kids are playing)

Read it for yourself.

The group also gives it's top ten games to avoid, but it also gives suggestions for parents on what to buy for their kids of different age groups. This is heartening because it proves that the site isn't just focusing on the bad in video games, but recognizes that video games are perfectly great entertainment, as long as you pay attention to what age groups are being exposed to what games...just like with movies.

Also, it's nice to see that these folks know that it's not Microsoft or Sony's fault that ten-year olds play Grand Theft Auto. The blame is falling on the parents for failing to parent! Careless parents, the same ones that think that anything animated is for kids, are just letting their children play video games without a care in the world. The same parents that think that because South Park: The Movie is animated, it's alright for kids, are the same parents who think that because it's a video game, that it's for children.

What exactly am I getting at? I'll tell you. When I was 15, I saw a little movie called Se7en. It's a great thriller with good acting and it's scary. It is grimy and has awesome atmosphere and is directed by one of my favorites, David Fincher, (Fight Club, Panic Room, Alien 3, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). Now, apart from making me even more interested in great movies by David Fincher, I also started reading the classics. I read Dante's Inferno, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (in Old English, thank you very much) and The Merchant of Venice as a direct result of watching Se7en. Now I realize that most teenagers wouldn't watch a movie like Se7en and then rush out to Border's to buy Penguin Classics, but I'll tell you, there was more creative violence in those books than in most of the movies I've seen, and if you know me, you know I've seen a shit-ton of violent movies. I wanted to expand the experience of the movie and see where all this sick shit came from. I was not disappointed.

Sure, in Se7en, there's a guy who fucks a prostitute with a knife, but they mention that it happened, you don't see any of it. (That's actually worse, but maybe I'll write about why it's worse tomorrow.) However, in Dante's Inferno, a guy gnaws through another guy's skull and eats his brain. I play Grand Theft Auto IV, and I do a lot of horrible violent things in that game. But I also have spent a lot of time walking and driving around a fairly accurate facsimile of New York City, and during my recent trip there, I shit you not, my knowledge of Liberty Cities' subway system helped me grasp the way NYC's subway works.

These are little examples, and they probably don't apply to a large number of people, but I took some positive things away from sources that are looked down upon for their complete lack of anything beneficial. I'm not advocating that kids should be playing GTA IV...after all I'd hate to have them think that the best way to get your money back from a prostitute it to run her over with your car, there are some things you should just discover for yourself when the time is right. We want our children, and the populace in general, to be interested in art and classic literature and culture, so who's to complain when the route that brings us to that destination isn't ideal?