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Cinema-style age ratings for video games to protect children
Last updated at 16:57pm on 27.03.08
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Video games will carry cinema-style age classifications to protect children from graphic violent and sex images.
Parents will be advised to take computers out of their children's bedrooms and put them in communal areas so they can be better supervised.
Retailers who breach the new rules by selling unsuitable games to children face large fines or jail sentences.
The recommendations are made in a report by psychologist Tanya Byron who also called for a massive education campaign to warn parents, teachers and childcarers of the risks children face from games and the internet.
Accepting the proposals in full, Children Secretary Ed Balls said: "Keeping children and young people safe from harm must be the priority and responsibility of us all. So we will help families strike the right balance between keeping children safe and allowing them the freedom they need by taking forward Dr Byron's recommendations."
Dr Byron also published a 16-page report aimed at children. She said: "You would not send your child to the pool without teaching them to swim, so why would you let them online without teaching them to manage the risks?"
Mother-of-two Dr Byronwas commissioned last year to draw up the report by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Games with sex or gross violence already need an age rating.
Dr Byron also called for higher security on social networking websites and IT help for parents to ensure that they cannot be outwitted by their children.
• The Advertising Standards Authority today launched an investigation into a TV commercial for the video game Bully:Scholarship after receiving 27 complaints from viewers. The advert shows a shaven-headed teenager forcing children's heads down school lavatories and firing catapults at teachers.
Reader views (1)
The problem is much bigger than just video games, this government has positively encouraged people who aren't fit to be parents to breed and then provided them with benefits to bring up their children. We now have a point where there are so many children under the age of 20 running lawless on the streets showing utter contempt for everyone and everything that the last thing we should be worrying about is the certification on computer games.
- Dd Goose, Parliament Hill
