British pols look to teach parents about game ratings

by Alexander Sliwinski { Dec 21st 2006 at 11:30AM }

Website MCV reports that prominent members of British parliament will work with various groups in early 2007 to create a policy to ~~educate parents~~ "protect children" from violent video games. Looks like politicians and the game industry are learning to play nice and work through their issues. Following the "interesting" announcement two weeks ago that US Senator's Clinton and Lieberman would work with the games industry in support of an ad campaign to teach parents about the ESRB rating system, it looks like the British will follow their lead.

Labour party member Keith Vaz says the discussion will center on implementation of TV advertising to educate parents. The meetings will include politicians, industry reps., retailers and parents. Vaz says, "It's an opportunity to reach a consensus on what actions, including a potential television advertising campaign, should be implemented to protect the UK's children." Whatever gets these guys thinking it'll get them reelected and moves them along to bother another industry is fine by us.

Tags: ESRB, parliament, policy, politicians

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Corbo @ Dec 21st 2006 2:09PM

Wasn't Keith Vaz the raving nutjob who tried to get Bully banned in the UK? I don't know whther to be glad that he seems to have calmed down and done something sensible now or scared that he's still involved in the lawmaking process.
Oh, and by the way, Joystiq. If we were following the US's lead on video game laws then we'd have had about a dozen illegal ones trying to get through parliament wasting tax payer's money. I see what you were trying to say but it came off a little smug.
Still, anything which involves actual game developers and parents in the process of educating parents about games can't be too bad.