Parents 'shouldn't let children play video games in bedroom'

The advice is the cornerstone of a crackdown to prevent youngsters being exposed to increasingly explicit images of sex and violence.

They should instead play the games in the living room or kitchen so they can be better monitored.

Gordon Brown is also expected to back a tough new cinema-style classification system for computer games.

At present, only about 10 per cent - those featuring "gross" violence or offensive sexual images - are covered by an age classification system.

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But a long-awaited review of the impact of films and games on children, headed by TV psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, is likely to lead to all games involving weaponry and combat being given an age certificate.

It would be illegal for shopkeepers to sell them to under-age children.

Mr Brown is known to share the concern of MPs from all parties who want controls on increasingly violent and sexual material amid concerns-that they could trigger attacks by impressionable teenagers and adults.

The Byron review, to be unveiled next Thursday, is expected to lead to radical reform of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), which is responsible for classifying films and games.

In recent years it has adopted a policy of allowing virtually anything to be shown to adults and increasingly offensive material to be shown to children.

Under the Video Recordings Act, most video games are exempt from the BBFC, falling into its remit if they depict gross violence against humans or animals.

Other games come under a separate, entirely voluntary European-wide scheme. Many children get round any age classification that is in place by ordering games over the Internet, where they often simply have to tick a box stating they are over 18.