violence

Poll: 58 percent of adults blame games for violent behavior

A new Harris Poll survey has found that 58 percent of adult Americans believe video games are a contributing factor to violent behavior in teenagers.

In addition, 38 percent of survey respondents said they were unaware of the ratings service provided by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). On top of this, 33 percent of adults queried said they allow their children to play whatever they want.

Harris culled the data from interviews of 2,278 U.S. adults. Venturebeat obtained the results of the independent survey, which Harris ran without funding from outside corporations or interests. … Read more

VP Biden to Hangout, talk gun control on Google+

President Obama's "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit drew more than 5 million views, and now Vice President Joe Biden is going to try his hand at a different newfangled social-media real-time electronic telegraph technology.

In an event dubbed a "Fireside Hangout," the vice president will be hanging out in Google+ starting at 10:45 a.m. PT tomorrow to discuss the recently released White House policy recommendations on reducing gun violence in the wake of a downright awful 2012 that was plagued by a number of mass shootings in the United States. … Read more

A connection between video games and real-world violence?

During a press conference earlier today unveiling his proposals for new gun-control regulations, President Obama said he will ask Congress for $10 million to fund a study by the Centers for Disease Control on the impact of video games and "media images."

It's a reasonable enough request. Gaming industry groups have said they'd welcome serious scientific research into the issue, though it's entirely unclear what the results of that research will lead to. And after what happened in Newtown, Conn., everyone -- from video game makers to movie producers to local news outlets to gun … Read more

If you play violent video games, you can take more pain

Researchers do sometimes concoct the most marvelous hypotheses.

However, some large heads at Keele University in the U.K. have managed to entice me into a piece of research that truly lifts the spirits.

For reasons that may or may not be related to Britain's own repressed but violent nature, these psychologists decided to inflict pain on gamers.

They wanted to see whether those who played violent games tolerated real, physical anguish better than those who played sissy games like EA's Tiger Woods mullarkey.

One wonders whether the participants knew that they would be subjected to waterboarding.… Read more

Indian government warns Twitter over not censoring tweets

India's government is instigating a full-fledged crackdown on social networks and various Web sites. After working with Facebook and Google to censor content, it's now clamping down on Twitter.

If Twitter doesn't go along with the government's demands of censorship, it may face legal action, according to The Times of India.

Here's what the Times of India wrote in an article today:

...a senior government official has said that Twitter has already been told that legal action may be taken against it as it had failed to cooperate with the Indian government in its efforts … Read more

Is there no alternative to public shaming on YouTube?

Technology now allows everyone to record, as well as snoop.

Some of the most successful companies in the world are those that manage to retain every last element of information provided by us -- whether we know it or not.

Has this, though, turned everyone with a camera into a broadcaster and a policeman?

This weekend, Anthony Sanchez, 34, a director of Imperial County Irrigation District in California, was arrested for allegedly beating his stepson with a belt in his own garden.

According to CNN, he turned himself in after a neighbor had filmed him in the alleged act.

Many … Read more

Friday Poll: Are today's video games too violent?

I once took out 861 infected villagers, crawly creatures, chainsaw-wielding weirdos, and bosses in a single session of Resident Evil 4. That's a lot of splatter, chest holes, ammunition, and blood bursts. That's a lot of violence.

Some of the new games unveiled at E3 this year make my personal splatterfest record look pretty tame. The Splinter Cell: Blacklist trailer is age-restricted. I counted at least a couple dozen kills over the course of the trailer, most of them up close and personal.

CNET Executive Editor Molly Wood's rant on the amount of violence in the new … Read more

Video game violence at E3: Too much, yet still not enough

I'm no shrinking violet when it comes to video game violence. I cut my teeth on Unreal Tournament, and I am a machine with a shotgun in Halo. But the bloody displays at Microsoft's and Sony's press conferences here at E3 left me horrified -- and depressed that an industry with so many challenges chose to offer so little to its existing and potentially new audiences.

Microsoft's Splinter Cell: Blacklist trailer was a mano-a mano murder fest (you need to enter your age just to watch it online), featuring multiple headshots that were helpfully slowed down, … Read more

Google exec: It's parents' job to protect kids from porn

It is always stimulating when an executive from Google tells us something about, you know, life.

Recently, we've had Sergey Brin explaining that it is surely better to trust Google than governments. Or, um, Facebook and Apple.

Yesterday, it was the turn of Naomi Gummer, who is a public policy analyst at Google in the United Kingdom. Her declaration was a simple one: It isn't Google's responsibility to ensure that kids aren't confronted by online porn. That falls to the parents.

The way the Telegraph speaks of her speech to a conference of child welfare experts, … Read more