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Soldat_Louis
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Some of us already know [B]Jacques Brodeur[/B], founder of EduPax website and program aimed at reducing violence in school. He [URL=http://forums.theeca.com/showthread.php?t=3557]posted two comments in GP's articles[/URL], and his opinions on video games are quite harsh, to say the least (though, as I've already said, he's not a "bad guy"). You can [URL=http://edupax.org/Assets/divers/documentation/1_articles/1_089_PagesfromSteinbergMacedo_ch56.pdf]read his opinions[/URL] on video games and violent entertainment, or [URL=http://www.archive.org/details/jacques_brodeur_2006-10-07]listen to them. [/URL]

However, Brodeur is not the only Canadian "anti-violence activist". And as they share the same opinions (and sometimes come from the same network of organizations), I decided to create a unique topic.

Meet [URL=http://www.c-cave.com/pages/biographies.html][B]Rose Anne Dyson[/B][/URL], consultant in media education and author of the book [URL=http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/1551641526/canadiansconc-20]Mind Abuse : Media Violence in an Information Age[/URL]. Rose Dyson is also the founder and chairwoman of [URL=http://www.c-cave.com/]C-CAVE[/URL] (Canadians Concerned About Violence in Entertainment). This watchdog organization (affiliated to Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood) was formed in the 80's as the Canadian counterpart of Thomas Radecki's infamous NCTV (National Coalition on Television Violence), the one that claimed that Nintendo's NES games were "tainted by extreme violence". Rose Dyson also has strong opinions on video games. Read, for example, [URL=http://www.c-cave.com/pages/articles/target3.html]her latest public speech[/URL] at Toronto Rotary Club :

[QUOTE=Rose Dyson]
[B]TORONTO ROTARY CLUB SPEECH, January 16, 2008, Toronto Lawn and Tennis Club

Title: What does media violence have to do with climate change?[/B]

(...)

Among popular culture commodities, pornography and video games, most of them violent, are still top U.S. exports. These have overtaken film and television production and distribution in recent years.

(...)

Reporting for the Globe and Mail on last year’s annual video game trade show in Los Angeles, Scott Colbourne, wrote that Sony, a giant in the field, released a jealously guarded trade secret involving plans for the entire family to communicate with each other by accessing content over broadband internet to play exciting new games with titles like Stranglehold and Final Fantasy Part IV. According to Doug Lowenstein, President of the Entertainment Software Association, who spoke at a conference on the Responsibility of Media Leaders beyond Prime Time in Colorado last year, 83 percent of parents are now involved in buying software and games such as Play stations and Xboxes, at a cost of around $3-400 each. He followed up with soothing reassurances that the industry’s rating system is adequate with only 15 percent actually rated “mature”. Catalogues available in most shopping malls hold the key to why this is the case. Extremely violent video games, with titles such as Killzone liberation, World WARCRAFT etc. are already rated suitable for teens. Not much left over for the “mature” category.

In Toronto last year Rockstar Productions made its own contribution to the world of entertainment with the extra-ordinarily violent video game, Manhunt 2, banned in the UK and other countries but with no objections here. In Canada we’re more apt to give out an award for audacity for such a production i.e. The film documentary, Death of a President at the TIFF in 2006. The dots between violence in society and violence in entertainment remain stubbornly unconnected. Consider the reaction in the wake of the Falconer Report on School Violence released last week. Much has been said about the code of silence among teachers and superintendents but nothing so far about how it applies to the media industries, themselves, who once again are quick to find fault in other sectors for social ills but conveniently avoid acknowledging their own culpability.

What About the Research?

Alarming research findings on the harmful effects of such entertainment, released into the public domain periodically, are usually quickly neutralized to ensure that the debate never gets beyond proof of harmful effects and onto policy. In 2001, a leading Japanese brain specialist found that playing Nintendo video games renders parts of the brain inert. The corporate giant approached him and quickly became his number one research donor. Now, Dr. Kawashima reciprocates by calling for more research and for the gaming industry, its back to business as usual. New findings involving the use of MRI techniques, were reported on in The Globe and Mail as far back as March, 2004. These demonstrate that brain cells which normally counsel empathy are shut down in teens who play violent video games. Did any of this come up in the 1000 page Falconer Report on School Violence released last week? Not to my knowledge.

(...)

What about censorship?

In the U.S., court challenges have been brought forward against the video game industry, usually as class action lawsuits from relatives of murdered victims, similar to what we have seen in the past involving the sales and use of tobacco. In Canada, virtually nothing along these lines has happened yet. Although in recent years, in the U.S., 9 circuit courts have struck down state attempts to regulate video games on the basis of First Amendment considerations, child advocates persevere. In fact there are growing demands for the Amendment, itself, to be updated. More and more scholars, from a variety of disciplines, are calling for a reinterpretation of both the Amendment and the definition of healthy economic activity in response to looming environmental disasters.

(...)

Indeed the threat to our survival goes well beyond the issue of climate change.

Violent video and computer games are not only contributing to the culture of fear in our schools and communities but are helping to fuel terrorism. It is estimated that there are now around 5,000 websites associated with extremist groups, many used for recruiting young converts. Almost all terrorist activities in recent years have actually been executed by members of diaspora communities, whether in Spain, England, Holland or Canada, often well educated and technologically- savvy.

(...)[/QUOTE]

To be continued...

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