Australia’s Classification Board recently banned a video game and the industry making money selling such things is upset.

A spokesman for SEGA says, “SEGA Australia can today confirm that the initial submission of ‘Aliens vs Predator’ has been Refused Classification by the Classification Operations Board of Australia.”

According to iTwire.com “At this point in time it is unclear why the new title has received the ban.  In the R18+ Classification-less Australia, however, it does not take much for a mature adult targeted game to not get permission for sale.” (4/12/2009)

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But the Board did state its reasons: “The game contains first-person perspective, close-up, depictions of human characters being subjected to various types of violence, including explicit decapitation and dismemberment . . . .

“The Predator collects ‘trophies’ by explicitly ripping off human heads, their spinal columns dangling from severed necks . . . .”

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Meanwhile a survey of adolescents in the journal Injury Prevention (3/12/2009) finds 10 percent “addicted to the Internet” — experiencing emotional problems, depression, nervousness etc. when not online, but feeling better when they return to the Internet, and also fantasising about, or being preoccupied by, being online — this 10 percent being twice as likely to harm themselves as others.

Have we created a generation unable to play? To really play? Video games are not games. Play stations are not play.

Sure, so-called video games mimic some features of play — competitiveness, chance, role-playing — but not the invigorating physical risk-taking that goes with playing in the backyard or the park.

Are we systematically “grooming” our young for a future of seeking their fun at poker-machine screens and/or hanging about casinos?     

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