WASHINGTON -- They can transform the home computer into a screen of horrors, full of bloody sword fights, crazed cars that run over people and action heroes who mow down their enemies with machine guns.
And they're as close as the local retail or rental shop.Violent video and computer games, which comprise a minority of the games on the market, have caught the eye of lawmakers, who want to keep them away from children this holiday season.
Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and Herbert Kohl of Wisconsin, who pushed the industry to develop a voluntary rating system for games four years ago, urged parents to be cautious about the kinds of electronic games they buy their children.
They also said manufacturers should stop marketing violent games rated for people age 17 and older to children, and that stores should stop selling such games to kids.
Kohl said one ad for a game rated for children 6 and older depicts a character saying, "Your weak pale flesh will rot in pieces." Now, I think you'd agree that not too many parents want their 6-year-olds repeating this -- at school or at home."
Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Interactive Digital Software Association, said the industry has done its job by developing a rating system that even critics of the violent games have praised, and an advertising code that's intended to bar the marketing of unsuitable material to kids.
But it's the job of parents, he said, to control what's being watched.
"This industry markets a variety of products to people of different ages, different tastes and different interests," said Lowenstein, who said more than 60 percent of video gamers are adults. The association represents game manufacturers.
John Thrasher, vice president of video sales for Tower Records, said it's ineffective to target retail sales to children when adults are the ones buying most of the games. Also, many games can be found on the Internet.
"You ought to look to the Net if you want to ask about some regulation on game products," said Thrasher, who said Tower doesn't sell the video games in question.
A survey, conducted this summer by the National Institute on Media and the Family, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit group that studies media impact on children, found that many parents don't pay attention to game ratings.
Just 40 percent of 529 parents surveyed in 46 states reported routinely looking at ratings before buying or renting a game. A separate rating system for arcades has been developed but not fully implemented.
David Walsh, the institute's director, said many parents are also unfamiliar with electronic games because they didn't grow up with them.
The institute also called on retail and rental stores to better train their employees about the rating system. An institute survey of 28 stores, conducted in October, found that 43 percent of workers don't understand the system.
Additional links:
1998 Video and computer game report card
The Lamb and Lion project