pornography & violence, a study, a report & an article

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

Protecting Children from Internet Pornography (ZENIT - The World Seen
From Rome)

In an Ongoing Web War, Free Speech Rights Push the Limits
"Freedom of expression needs to be restricted." This isn´t the latest
declaration of an authoritarian government, but an appeal made by the
head of the United Nations Children´s Fund, Carol Bellamy. 

A few days ago marked the 10th anniversary of the first Web page. The
explosion of data available through the Internet has had many
positive effects, but also makes life a lot easier for pornographers.


The Guardian newspaper of London reported Dec. 19 that the head of
UNICEF called for greater censorship of the Internet to combat the
flood of child pornography sites on the World Wide Web. 

 http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=14495


Fair Play? Violence, Gender and Race in Video Games.
Most of the top-selling video games offer very little racial and
gender diversity, according to a comprehensive study conducted by
Children Now, a child research and action organization. White
characters were the only human characters found in young children's
games. Nearly all of the heroes were white and female characters were
severely under-represented in video games, accounting for only 16
percent of human characters.

INTRODUCTION

There are probably few adults these days who don't remember the
excitement of playing early video games such as Pac Man, Space
Invaders and Frogger. The ability to interact with a machine in a
game situation was thrilling-and still is. Today, the little yellow
dot-eater and the highly pixilated spaceships have evolved into
seamlessly animated characters, graphic images of demons, and
lifelike humans complete with lifelike weapons and lifelike blood. 

Video games were a $6 billion industry in 2000 and sales are
projected to reach as high as $8 billion in 2001. Over 280 million
units were sold in 2000 alone, and it is estimated that 60% of all
Americans, or about 145 million people, play video games on a regular
basis. This level of market penetration, combined with the high
levels of realism makes it important to investigate the messages
video games send children. 

There are some benefits to video games. Studies have found that
playing video games can improve children's visual attention skills,
their spatial skills, their iconic skills and their computer literacy
skills. In addition, the use of educational games, which are almost
exclusively sold for the PC, have been shown to help improve academic
performance. 

However, many more studies have shown relationships between playing
video games and unhealthy outcomes, such as isolation and loneliness,
obesity, belief in gender stereotypes and increased aggressive
behavior. In fact, video games' unique interactive capabilities may
make them even more likely to influence children's attitudes, beliefs
and behaviors than more traditional forms of media. 

Fair Play? Violence, Gender and Race in Video Games examines the
top-selling video games for each of the seven different game systems.
Fair Play? identifies some of the unhealthy social messages that
video games may be sending to young players about violence, gender
and race and contains ideas for improving games for children. 

Note: In this report the term "video game" refers to both games
played on a personal computer and games played on a console system.

"Computer and video games bring us into imaginary worlds and allow us
to define who we are, how we behave, and how we relate to others in
the game; they challenge us intellectually; they excite us; they
educate and empower us."

- Douglas Lowenstein, President, Interactive Digital Software
Association. 

 http://www.childrennow.org/media/video-games/2001/

The letter that dare not speak its name 
Canberra's plans to censor the Internet are hitting snags as net
users fight back across Australia, writes David Marr. 


Right on the lip of the cliff, the Carr Government is hesitating to
join the Australian crusade to make the Internet suitable for
children. Though it would take miracles rather than laws to achieve
this purpose, the Howard Government passed legislation which the
states are expected to reinforce by punishing anyone who puts
anything on the Net that is "unsuitable for minors". 

 http://www.smh.com.au/news/0201/02/opinion/opinion2.html


=====
David Goldstein
post: 82 Kingston Road, Earlsdon CV5 6LR, UK
email: Goldstein_David@yahoo.com.au
phone: +44 24 7667 7226 (home) +44 7786 704 887 (mobile)

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