(ir)responsability

and there are people who find it weird that i fiercely oppose the way european union works:

a two-day discussion in dresden, germany, about restricting and banning violent games has led to wider support for plans for a unified system across europe, reports the associated press.
european union justice and home affairs commissioner franco frattini told reporters that he, along with germany's interior minister wolfgang schaeuble and justice minister brigitte zypries, had encouraged member states "to prevent, to ban violent video games."´
frattini, who also called for a ban on the horror game rule of rose, wants a unified ratings and restrictions system across the eu's 27 countries put in place. he said, "the protection of children cannot have borders."
he added that it was important to raise awareness about the sensitivity of the issue and increase and encourage measures to be taken in a practical way by police authorities, especially on age-checking issues.
luxembourg's justice minister luc frieden joined the debate, calling for the eu to take action by saying, "access to children should be cut off. we have to ban some games."
he proposal for a unified ratings system was backed by germany, britain, greece, finland, spain, and france.

this was taken from gamespot discussion forum, and generated a massive heat among its users (and most likely among the entire european gaming comunity). i mean, this is just plain stupid. all right, there is videogame content that shouldn't be avaliable for children, but to ban those games it so take the most extreme step - by doing so, no one will have access to those games, which included the ones they were targeted to. obviously a game like resident evil is not aimed for eight year old children.

what i wonder is, where is the individual responsability in this story? if children have access to violent videogames, who is to blame? the producers? the game stores, who sell them freely to everyone? or the parents, who don't give a fuck about what they children do as long as they stay quiet? i'd go for for the last two answers.

even if a child has money of his or her own, it shouldn't be possible to buy games like that. same than what happens if a teenager goes to a drink store to buy a bottle of vodka: the shopkeeper will ask for the id, and if the teenager is under 18, there will be no vodka. if a game is meant to be for players above 18, why do a 12 year old kid gets it? game stores should be far more restrictive. i mentioned a drink store as example, but a videoclub would fit here just as well: under 18, there is no porn.

and, obviously, parents should pay more attention to their children. they should know what they do and what they see and what they play and all that. and don't come and tell me that today's parents have no time and all that crap. if they don't have time to watch over their children, they why do they have them in the first place? parents must be present. they don't need to play with their kids, but they must know what they play and control the games that they get access to. and if the parents decide that his 12 year old son can play a game rated above 18 years old, then it's their responsability, and their responsability alone.

but no, this can't be done, there is no such thing as responsability any more. it's way much better - and easier - to ban the violent content. "access to children mist be cut off", says the prime-minister of luxembourg during a fascist delirium. they start by doing this and the pandora's box gets opened. then movies can be banned, then books, then comics, and a lot more things. because it is easier to forbid that to act in a responsible way. go for it, european union. reveal your totalitarian heritage. our leaders in brussels really do one hell of a job making fools out of ourselves.

one of the gamespot forum's users, someone that answers by the alias "darthkalo", wrote something that sums this all up perfectly: there is nothing worse than someone telling you how to live your life, especially when they really don't care about you. indeed.