Campaign for a Game Smart Community

King County community leaders have joined Mothers Against Violence in America and Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson in a call to action to mobilize the community regarding violent video game sales to children.

Launching the Campaign for a Game Smart Community, this group of leaders, including King County Executive Ron Sims, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng, King County Sheriff David Reichert, and leaders from other leading community organizations and associations, hope to reach out to parents and other concerned groups who care about the safety of our community’s children.

Community partners joining the Campaign for a Game Smart Community include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Washington State, the Washington State Psychological Association, the Children’s Alliance, the Minority Executive Directors Coalition, the Church Council of Greater Seattle, Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress, Washington State National Organization of Women the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs. More partners are expected to join the Campaign in the weeks ahead.

The Campaign for a Game Smart Community’s goals are two-fold: (1) educate parents about the Entertainment Software Rating Board video game rating system and the effects of violent games on children, and (2) determine ways to strongly encourage the retail business community to enforce the ratings in sales of video games to children.

To join the Campaign for a Game Smart Community, contact Julia Hokanson at MAVIA. A VHS video of violent video game clips and information is available.

Parents have no idea how violent these games are, Pamela Eakes, President and Founder of MAVIA said. After people have a chance to actually see what their kids are playing, we’re going to see a ripple effect in the community – insisting that retailers abide by the video game rating system. It’s a matter of keeping our kids safe.

It’s clear that our community cares about whether our children are sold these sick, ultra-violent and racist video games, Rep. Dickerson said. Every organization that cares about ending racism, brutality toward women, graphic violence and killing of law enforcement officers should be outraged by what video game manufacturers are marketing to our children. We know other organizations will join the Campaign for a Game Smart Community to reach both parents and the retail community about what games are appropriate for children.

M-rated video games include mature content appropriate for ages 17+. In some of these games, players earn points for burning and urinating on African American police officers, having sex with prostitutes and beating them to death to get their money back, decapitating women with shovels, and shooting and brutally murdering almost anyone in the player’s path.

MAVIA’s recent sting operations of retailers in the greater Seattle area, conducted by students ages 12-15, revealed that 88% of retailers sold M-rated video games to underage children – in violation of the video game industry’s own rating system.

A 2000 Federal Trade Commission study indicated that of 118 M-rated games, 83 of them had marketing plans targeted toward children. A recent Indiana University Medical School study shows that playing violent video games can alter the cellular workings of the brain, slowing brain activity that controls emotions, impulses and attention spans – and the worst impacts are on children with other behavior disorders.

Also see: Video Games

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