The glossy lead page of today's Sunday Times Magazine carries a face-on image of a 14-year-old, Ben, playing the 18-rated GTA IV.
The newspaper likes to think the arresting picture - all inky hair, felonious eyebrows and emotion-less concentration - tells us something about 'what online addiction is doing to our kids'.
It doesn't. What it does tell us, however, is how desperate some pockets of our national press have become to vilify video games in an age when public understanding and appreciation of the medium is at an all-time high.
So desperate, in fact, they'll endorse minors interacting with brutal adult material for the sole purpose of... well, actually, I still can't put my joypad-tapping finger on what exactly the reader reaction is supposed to be. Other than uniform outrage, that is.
How in all of Liberty City is it deemed not only okay but actually cover-worthy by The Sunday Times editors to subject kids to violent games in this way?
If they were running a piece on underage drinking, would they snap an adolescent supping Jack Daniel's in their photo studio? Or for an expose of pornography habits, stick a tweeanger in front of Debbie Does Dallas and record the hilarity that ensues?
Of course not - that would be morally abominable, right? But games? No worries. They're a toy, after all.
Perhaps the Sunday Times wants to frighten Middle England's parents into thinking the video games industry is spoon-feeding their offspring mind-warping filth; that the UK's youth is becoming malignant, joyless and addled by this nefarious plaything.
Heck, with the darkened backdrop and gloomy stare, little Ben looks like he's even transformed into somewhat of a threatening chav. The horror!
But, really, who's the irresponsible one here? The industry which robustly regulates all of its material - and which signs up to potential custodial punishment for any retailer caught selling adult material to kids? Or the honourable broadsheet which sanctions young people being exposed to severe adult media?
If there's one message parents should take away from the image, it's got nothing to do with 'online addiction' - it's 'don't trust The Sunday Times to take pictures of your children'.
In fact, the image comes from UK photographer Robbie Cooper's new exhibition, Immersion. The newspaper also carries Cooper's face-on pictures of 10, 11, and 12-year-olds getting stuck into Rockstar's latest violent escapade - as well as an engrossed Alex Kinch, 12, taking on the blood-splattered Call Of Duty 4.
Now, I'm no connoisseur of the art of the life still-photo - and Newsnight Review may well see things another way. But this doesn't appear 'daring' to me; rather foolish and needlessly close to harmful.
In Cooper's defence, the images form part of a wider work profiling our obsession with the digital screen - which also features plenty of images of adults (and babies) viewing TV programmes, websites and movies.
Except, these non-gaming pictures aren't printed in The Sunday Times. It makes no mention of them.
The paper takes what it needs from Cooper's work to support its unsettlingly one-sided anti-games 'expose' and tacks them on. Bizarrely, the cover story the pics are awkwardly married to - an investigation into teenagers getting hooked on PC MMORPGs - has very little to do with GTA IV or CoD4.
Not that you'd know it if you weren't au fait with the massive differences between these games and the Warcrafts and EVE Onlines picked on in the piece.
Author Anmar Frangoul has it in for games from the start. Two paragraphs in, he's already claiming: 'Kids start by watching CBeebies; a few years later they're playing Call Of Duty.' Yes, Anmar, they are. If they're part of a heavily orchestrated photoshoot. Widely distributed by the newspaper you work for.
And it goes on. 'Next time you see your son, daughter or flatmate glued to a video game, take a keener interest. Have they eaten properly, washed themselves, been to the toilet?'
Quite how one would ascertain if their flatmate had loosened their bowels of late without breaching the most inappropriate of enquiries mid-FIFA is unclear; Frangoul's agenda far less so.
The journalist cites two recent studies on the terrible addictiveness of video games. One is a 2007 study published in the journal of CyberPscyhology and Behavior, by Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University, 'which found that one in every nine gamers displayed at least three signs of addictive behaviour'.
Two pages later - ineffectively stuck near the predictably scaremongering denouement of the article - Griffiths clarifies: "I've spent the best part of 22 years studying technological addictions and the people I've met who have been genuinely addicted have been few and far between... TV was demonised when it first came out; the internet is getting the same treatment."
The other study cited is the Government's infamous 2008 Byron Review, from which the piece prints: "It is clear that even in the absence of a diagnosable addiction, many children do show excessive game-playing behaviour."
So, just to be clear: Two studies from two people - one who doesn't believe clinical addiction to games exists, the other who believes very few people suffer from it.
Whether or not compulsive playing of video games is a cause or syndrome of a desperate situation for some teens is still inconclusive, then - making the best course of treatment for those 'hooked' on MMOs still very much open for debate. Unless you need to hang a Sunday Times article on a bit of fabricated certainty, that is.
Pardon me for getting a touch anecdotal, but if games really are the be-all-and-end-all of these kids' problems, may I suggest their parents emulate my own mother - who perennially removed my Atari STE (never forget the E) from my room during school term time. I was grumpy about it, but, you know, she gave me food and that. Problem. Solved.
Do kids really need to go to a cash-gobbling 'games addiction clinic' to achieve the same outcome?
The Sunday Times seems to think they do. It interviews Broadway Lodge in Weston Super-Mare, which last year opened its doors to 'games addicts' - for a hefty price. 'Several gamers have already been treated here,' reports the paper, 'and [Broadway] is convinced that the numbers will increase.'
I should suppose they will, too: Helped particularly by the phoney panic generated by this weekend's Sunday Times Magazine, and the shameful images its creators used to emphasise their assumptions.
A couple of years ago I actually phoned The Daily Mail in response to an article they were running.
There was some new outrage over videogames violence at the time and the Mail got Anne Diamond to review some violent games. Obviously, she hasn't the foggiest idea about videogames and these 'reviews' were basically damnations on COD4, GTA4 etc... basically whatever was big at the time. It was clear from the text that she had been in the same room as the game at some point. What caused me to phone the paper and complain was her review of Halo 3. She didn't see it as too threatening and her 12 and 14 year old sons both agreed.
I explained to the woman on the end of the phone that they had kind of shot themselves in the foot there. Here they were using a clueless minor celebrity to attack videogames over children's exposure to violent material and then totally failing to realise that they had admitted in black and white to exposing a BBFC 15 rated game to minors. I went on to explain that videogames weren't the problem here but the willful ignorance of the paper in their need to fulfill some fearmongering doctrine. This was more harmful to society as a whole. I mentioned that my Nan actually fervently believes everything she reads in the Mail; and I explained that they have a moral obligation to behave in a responsible way.
Naturally the woman failed to see my point of view. She just exclaimed that if my Nan and 2 million other readers were happy then 'job done' before hanging up the phone!
At the end of the day I think we as reasonable people just have to accept that all newspapers have some sort of agenda which colours whatever news that they report. There's no such thing as unbiased after all. I find that for my sanity it's all best left ignored.
The irony is that all of this bulls**t drives you to game more. The real world sucks and that's why more and more people want to live in fantasy worlds. Video games are perceived as dangerous because they have the potential to realise fantasy worlds far more effectively than any medium beforehand and that's the real issue. Of course there are genuine concerns about videogames and more specifically to underaged children but they need to be addressed in an evenhanded manner, not this feverish sensationalism and witch hunting.
I guess we'll just have to ride this out people and wait for a new public enemy number 1.
Sad, its just awful what the majority of the human race has come to. A bunch of mindless f*cking idiots.
Stop trying to control every little thing someone else does, mind your own f*cking business, and STFU. We only live once so please f*ck off so we can actually live our own lives the way we want to. Not by what some jerk off thinks is best for everyone.
I'm in shock at how stupid some people are. Mind your own f*cking business and leave everyone else alone.
Tim, you make some good and some not so good points. However, if you put half as much effort into most other articles you and the cvg staff post on your site, I'd take alot more interest in it. Frequently cvg 'articles' are pretty short, virtually cut n paste efforts from other sites. Just strikes me as very lazy and if you don't make more effort then why should I take an interest? This article shows a bit of effort and it is appreciated, just wish cvg did that more often.
Sadly this will always happen, but as long as there are the ratings games will be safe enough.
Oh and i wonder how many of the STFU comments and "let us live our lives" comments on here will be posted by silly little under 18s who think its okay to play 18 rated games.
On the same priciple that daily mail has used GTA to outline its apparent evilness. I'm going to rent the film the SAW and perhaps the Exorcist, watch it with my underage son just to highlight the damage they can do to our children.
What were the parents of the child in this article thinking about.
This itself is perhaps more shocking than the content of Gta.
Things like this are great for violent video games because we can see how desperate they are getting to attack the industry and in their desperation their arguments lack any credibility. Maybe next week the sun will run a headline; "VIDEO GAMES THE TRUTH" we all know how well that went down last time they printed words like that.
Sorry im shocked by this and i really think someone should make a complaint to the police. Submitting adult rated content to underage surely has to be illegal. If its so damaging are they paying damges to the parents of the childern whos minds are destroyed eh????. This is the same paper that gave/gives a free comic with cartoon voilence in it, what a bunch of t**ts.
Well, any article ive seen on this site has it in for anybody who speaks ill of games, even when they have research to back it up. Im not talking about some dumb redtop mouthpiece that you take the p**s out of, thats fair game. But you always slate respected academic people and their research that shows games in a bad light, and that makes you just as bad as these Sunday Times writers.
I wish I never had gotten into gaming. Ive been doing it for 20 years and I feel i have missed out on things sitting in front of a monitor or TV for countless hours.
If used that time to practice guitar and to study more at college Id be like Eric Clapton with a PhD.
If you play games too much, you will waste your life away.
Its alwasy gona be the same thing with kids playing games they shouldn't, its the bloody parents fault, when is someone gona stand up infront of these numpty's and explain that, and do a good job about it aswell!
Age ratings are there for a reason, films, booze, cigarettes, games etc have had them for nye on decades, its upto the parent to decide what they're kids are exsposed to and what they buy them!
Its all bureaucratic bullsh*t anyway to keep us busy and away from real problems going on in the world
I'm suprised Tim can stay so calm in lieu of all this sensational reaction to games. With this article and his appearance on the Alan Titchmarsh Show they are clear examples of people banging their pots and pans in the street shouting for the local witch to be burned at the stake. They are not aware why they are doing this and they don't care to think, they just do it because it's easier and more comfortable to be told how to think then thinking for themselves. This would not happen if they did the latter.
I went to a preview event for Super Street Fighter IV in Manchester this weekend. A friend brought a relative of the host family he lives with to the event who was about 13. He, like myself, had a great time and a lot of fun at the event and enjoyed playing the game prior to release. I don't think for a moment that he will go and replicate the moves done in the game on people outside. Funnily enough there was an ongoing brawl between pubgoers and bouncers at a pub on the way back to the train station. I can't see that having been related to playing games and more a bad reaction to their team losing the football match that afternoon.
It just goes to show, whatever you're into, there will be reasonable individuals who really enjoy it and get the most out of it (which is why we do it in the first place) and there will always be those who can't control their emotions and then end up fighting strangers because they don't agree with them. Somewhere in this the end point links to the start but I think people get what I mean.
I wish I never had gotten into gaming. Ive been doing it for 20 years and I feel i have missed out on things sitting in front of a monitor or TV for countless hours.
If used that time to practice guitar and to study more at college Id be like Eric Clapton with a PhD.
If you play games too much, you will waste your life away.
But equally if you play guitar too much or study too much then you will also waste your life away. Variety is the spice of life. It's not gaming's fault that it's so awesome that it makes a lot of other activities seem dull in comparison.
I just wanted to add that I'm listening to the End of Eternity soundtrack right now and it's very soothing, a great mix of classical and rock themes composed by 2 great composers. Now, if all games were as The Times Article says then we wouldn't get trult great music such as this would we? Even the games they highlighted either have great original or licensed soundtracks.
I really wish they would give a more rounded argument on the matter rather than making so heavily agenda-pushing its tranparent. Oh well, mass media doesn't want people to think now does it? Thanks for the reminder George Carlin.
'Next time you see your son, daughter or flatmate glued to a video game, take a keener interest. Have they eaten properly, washed themselves, been to the toilet?'
Actually I haven't eaten or bathed for a week because the voices in the TV said I didn't have to.
Seriously couldn't a company sue these ass hats for libel? If applicable to this case it would really stir things up.
Good article Tim If I worked for some mainstream paper, I'd want to get this published in it. Maybe with a tiny bit of editing though, just to make it not so obvious that you were a gamer yourself so that mainstream public wouldn't trash it straight away for disagreeing with their spoon-fed views
I said something very similar to this when the Titchmarsh thing happened about TV, and it works for newspapers as well:
Newspaper circulation, like TV viewership, is at an all time low, noticably with the under 30s, and especially with the under 20s- and it's got nothing to do with how amazing YouTube or Facebook are, or how good the web is at distributing information, and everything to do with nonsense articles like this one.
I don't know how good or bad The Sunday Times' coverage of the war in Afghanistan/Iraq was, I've not been there, and I don't know how good or bad their current coverage of the election is, I don't work for a political party.
However, I do know games, and I know them well enough to know that this article is poorly-researched, sensationalist bull, and I can only assume that The Sunday Times has been taking the same approach to the war and the election- and I, like many others, am not paying money for that.
At the end of the financial year, all the newspaper execs are going to look at their lowered sales and sit there wondering why their business is in the toilet. Think they'll realise?
by silly little under 18s who think its okay to play 18 rated games.
its not
its illegal
No it isn't- it's illegal to sell an 18 game to an under 18, but not for them to play it if they get it.
All these stupid old farts who are influencing the witch hunt on games should have hopefully kicked the bucket sometime in the next 30yrs, so we needn't worry.
The large majority of our generation will hopefully be accepting of games and the internet, just as has happened with film, comics, tv and music in previous generations.
I just hope that this attitude doesn't rub off to this generation.
CVG i have been a fan of yours for many years. I remember buying the issues when I was a kid, and I even had issue 2 of your mag. Anyway look I have followed you for a long time and am a big fan but look guys, even you must admit that these MMORPGS are very very addictive and could lead to a full blown addiction.
I am a mature gamer so I know when I am being being sucked in. I have had a few addictions of other sorts anyhow lol so I know the warning signs!. But a young man/teenager wont see these signs so it could be very easy for that individual to become addicted.
I respect how you guys stand up for video games. But you know this is real problem that is happening to a small amount of people. There are people out there who are hooked and I mean hooked to these games and would rather live in their online worlds than face reality and their own problems.
I read the article and was horrified to find out that a South Korean couple left their own child to die while raising a digital child at the internet cafe,that may be extreme but man that's just awful.
Anyway look I know it's in your best interests to defend gaming but sometimes you just gotta be honest and say 'Yeah that game has a potential to cause a addiction'. I'm sure if you had a child and seen the reality of a addiction on a personal level it could lead you to think very differently.
Good article, your I mean, not the Times, will have to get around to sending a disgruntled email there way later, sure I won't be the only one.
I'm 25 years old, been playing games since I was a child, wouldn't have said I was addicted though, I know what I would let my kids do etc etc, it all comes down to the old saying "blame the parents"
I think its time we just ignore such inaccurate sensationalist tv and newspaper media, just as we ignore forum trolls or drunks shouting in the street. They are not worthy of attention. Ignore them and they will go away.
xJohnox made a solid point. There ARE addictive games out there and these are hard for even grown-ups to dismiss. I've known people who have literally been consumed by WOW, and it's not a pretty sight. HOWEVER, parents have a duty when they bring a child to the world. That duty includes teaching them to have a life, balancing staying inside gaming and going outside to play sport and socialise. Most of these kids who are addicted have poor parentings, because their parents just can't be bothered to be strict enough with them. A lot of these under-age gamers are rude to their parents because these parents allowed themselves to lose control. That's how we end up with the blame-game.
Everything points back to parents being...PARENTS.
perants looking for scape goats in childrens behaviour, becuase obviously children weren't like this beofre video games, well 1. children nevcer used to be like this because of being spolied brats, 2.eating s**t food , 3. Not getting enough exercise 4. perants who are well don't disapline there children and 5. Children were like this in first place. watch oliver or read it its based on historical happenings and children stole food ect. getting sick to death of these almost bias survays ect if anything they said was ture i'd be a serial rapist addicted to meth and battleing depression. well 1. I'm doing B grade stuff in 6th form 2. I'm 10 stone, 3. Not depressed at all 4. and well i'm not in prison for anything and am 17 teen and i've played 15/ 18 yearold games 4/5 year ago. i wouldn't let my children play games like alien ect until the at least 15 keep them on fifa or mario untill 14 or something
oooh is CVG doing comment articles now, because that would really be a plus for the website.
...under 18s who think its okay to play 18 rated games. its not, its illegal, stop it
err no it's not, that's just false.
And anyway not everything illegal is bad as well as not everything legal is good. Common sense and an educated understanding will always prevail. Laws like these(which is selling restrictions not playing restrictions) are only there to apply to the lowest common denominator of person.
The Byron report was basically all about looking at how games could be used in schools as educational devices; not edu-games, but off the shelf titles. The conclusion it came to was that they could and should. Hardly an appropriate report for any negative gaming article! But then, people who read the Times deserve all the misinformation they get!
I've been reading various articles about how videogame violence is warping childrens minds. I have to admit, I'm getting so sick of this. Im currently 20 years old and have been playing videogames since the ages of 4. As i always say, its the parents responsibility. Videogames are evolving dramatically. gameplay and story are now sometimes better than the films i see at the cinema nowadays. But Parents are now under the influence that videogames are still like arcade games like Asteroids and that their only for children.THIS IS RUBBISH. Videogames are now targeted at Adults ranging from 18 to like over 30. Games are now on the same scale as films. They are more adult story line driven and what they show. Parents fail to understand this. They have a problem buying them a 18+ film, but because its "only" a videogame parents seem to think its still a childs game, and then they hear bad language in the game and go nuts. Notat themselves, but at the game. iTS THE PARENTS DUTY TO REALISE THAT THESE GAMES ARE A 18+ FOR A REASON. IF THE PARENT DOESNT LIKE THE CHILD PLAYING GAMES WITH VIOLENCE AND BAD LANGUAGE, THEN SIMPLY DONT ALLOW THEM TO PLAY IT. My dad isnt one for video games, however when i was younger he'd tell me it was only a game and that i hadnt to copy or say anything that was in the video game, and i knew he trusted me too, so i didnt. iTS ALL ABOUT PARENTS TEACHING THEIR CHILDREN ABOUT RIGHT AND WRONG AND SOCIALISING CHILDREN INTO BEING TRUSTED WITH WHAT THEY PLAY,. IF THE PARENTS DONT LIKE IT,then they shouldnt let them play it, in most cases its the parents buying the games. When i was buying COD:MW2(huge let down btw) there was so many school kids with their mummies buying them games, cause lets face it, its all the parents that buy the games for their under 18 kids. Videogames have evolved, its time people, understood that games arent just small kiddies games. Videogames can make kids lazy and less motivated, believe me i've been theri, but i work out 3 hours a day and have a good social life, its all upto the individual and those responsible for the children. Not the game or the makers. PLEASE COMMENT ABOUT THIS GUYS, SECOND POST FOR ME, WOULD LIKE SOME FEEDBACK AND IF U AGREE OR EXPAND ON ANYTHING.
10 year old found watching hardcore porn, because the sunday times wanted to prove that it harms children.
No s**t!
If you show minors material which is meant for adults, it's bound to cause problems. The games aren't the problem, but it is in fact the media itself.
Gamers have an addiction? Well, reporters have an unhealthy addiction to tell us what we should or shouldn't do, because they say so!
They should just go back and complain about something they understand, when clearly the majority of people don't seem to know what they're on about, or even play games.
but the age restrictions MUST b respected! IT CAN b very harmfull especially for younger ppl to sit days after days watching ppl die...
its funny that its the grownups everywhere who says videogames r bad, but their kids sits at home playing. i think its the parents responsebility when kids are young.
Wish The Times would run a piece on how work is evil. I, as many of you out there, delve into work 7, maybe 8 hours every day... Surely that isn't healthy.
Maybe if they push hard enough, the government will see fit to ban the f*cking waste of time that work is.
As a gamer and a parent I would never let my kids play the games I play. All my games are locked away and never played before their bedtime. I cant understand why some people would expose young children to violence in any form of media. Lazieness I'm guessing, anything for a quiet life? The day fallout 3 came out I was in sainsburys as they had it for Ł26. I went to get it and this 10 (ish) year old grabs the next copy and runs over to mum. She glances at the price and slings it in the trolley. If you look at the front of the box (this was on 360) theres the biggest 18 cert logo ever. I felt like saying something, but what response would I have got? On the other hand, I bought madworld the other day for a fiver, and the guy in HMV, seeing that I had a 5 year old with me, checked it was for me. We had a laugh about it and he'd covered his own back. Job done. Thats what should be happening. But at the end of the day its down to the parents to check for a cert.
Usual crappy journalism though... only seeing one side of the story.
Example: The Sun ran a story last week about a 4 year old kid finding a small bag of pot behind the manual of a game his dad had bought him and there was uproar.
Not at the game, not even Rockstar would give out a bag of hash with a new release but that the store he bought it from hadn't checked the box.
There was NOTHING in the article about the dad having bought a 16 rated game for his 4 year old kid because they weern't focusing on him being a crappy parent... maybe if the kid had punched his teacher as a result of playing it (game was Fight Night 4) they'd have been up in arms about violent games affecting kids, but still ignoring the kid only got the game from his dad.
I had the Sunday Times at the weekend and I also thought "What has GTA got to do with online addiction?", but, in all honesty, I didn't think it was a hysterical article at all.
It all comes down to bad parenting, simple as that. You've got to bring your kids up to be well-balanced, not leave them in their room all day with the internet (crikey, if they've got the internet, games are the last thing I'd be worried about).
But, like I say, I didn't think it was a "blame games" article, just an in-depth look at an issue, like they do every week.
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If I worked for some mainstream paper, I'd want to get this published in it. Maybe with a tiny bit of editing though, just to make it not so obvious that you were a gamer yourself so that mainstream public wouldn't trash it straight away for disagreeing with their spoon-fed views 
