Last summer, acknowledging that new games with live action are more frightening than older games’ cartoons, Sega of America began rating its product. (Mortal Kombat, in which aggressors rip off heads and brandish the bloody trophies, got an MA-13: not for young children.) While the predatory Night Trap (which features underclad teenage girls) may be fine for post-pubescents, a Sega spokesperson said, “it’s very scary for 6-year-olds who don’t like the idea of getting the blood sucked out of them.” Nintendo of America, aiming at a younger market, already bans what it considers graphic violence and explicit sex. That policy probably cost them: the company estimates that it lost $10 million by taming down its own version of Mortal Kombat.
Worried parents might take some comfort in a new British study that found that videogames do not breed violence among children. Those surveyed had no trouble distinguishing a game from real life. “We may be appalled by something,” says psychologist Guy Cumerbatch, but kids “know its conventions and see humor in things that others wouldn’t.” If that’s true, the next time your kids become videogame avenging angels, you can just smile.
