{"id":11985,"date":"2006-12-21T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-21T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2006\/12\/21\/violent-video-games-may-be-banned-in-germany\/"},"modified":"2006-12-21T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-12-21T12:00:00","slug":"violent-video-games-may-be-banned-in-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2006\/12\/21\/violent-video-games-may-be-banned-in-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"Violent Video Games May Be Banned in Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"source\"><a HREF=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/e98b3a9a-851c-11db-b12c-0000779e2340.html\">www.ft.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"summary\">BERLIN, GERMANY, December 6, 2006:  Violence in video games has escalated and countries around the world are taking steps to censure the violence as they feel it may be directly related to real-life incidents of violence among youth who are avid gamers.  One such country leading the crackdown is Germany.  The news release explains, &#8220;Virtual hit men in Europe&#8217;s largest video games market could soon find themselves behind real bars if German regional politicians have their way.  Under new legislation drawn up in reaction to a shooting at a school last month, developers, retailers and players of videos featuring &#8216;cruel violence&#8217; could face up to a year in jail.  The bill &#8211; unveiled this week by the states of Bavaria and Lower Saxony and due to be presented to the national parliament next year &#8211; is already raising the alarm in the 2m strong German online gaming community.&#8221;  Frank Sliwka, head of the Deutsche E-Sport Bund, an umbrella federation for online gaming teams, responds to the legislation by saying, &#8220;We have among the most drastic censorship rules for games.  Now we are being labeled as a breeding ground for unstable, dysfunctional and violent youngsters.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>However the German public supports the ban as the article points out, &#8220;The latest bill highlights growing popular disgust in Germany at violent video games, mirroring debates in the US. A poll taken after last month&#8217;s shooting at a secondary school in Emsdetten showed 72 per cent of respondents blaming such incidents on violent games and 59 per cent supporting a ban.  The 18-year old who killed himself with a rifle after storming his school and injuring 11 people was an avid Counter Strike player and self-avowed internet nerd according to local newspapers.&#8221;  Guenther Beckstein, Bavaria&#8217;s interior minister, adds, &#8220;It is absolutely beyond any doubt that such killer games desensitize unstable characters to violence and can have a stimulating effect.&#8221; <\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>www.ft.com BERLIN, GERMANY, December 6, 2006: Violence in video games has escalated and countries around the world are taking steps,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}