New Zealand Censor: Prosecute Parents Who Give Violent Games to Kids
New Zealand's chief government censor has called for the prosecution of parents who give their children access to violent video games, according to stuff.co.nz.
Bill Hastings (left) hopes that such cases - apparently enabled by Kiwi law - will provide "shock value" to deter other parents from making similar choices in regard to their children's media consumption:
They might think the offence is silly, but it ain't... That's what the law says, but... you're not going to have police officers in every bedroom... There would certainly be some shock value to prosecuting a parent who gives their under-18 child access to a restricted game. It would send out a message that the enforcement agency means business.
I think the word 'game' can mislead people for sure. It's not checkers. For the first time in history, kids are more savvy with technology than parents... parents need to get up to speed on the digital divide. They need to look at what their kids are playing and doing...
It should be the pleasure in being able to sleep at night knowing that you have done the right thing by your kids. That should be the motivating factor.
Under the law, parents could be fined up to NZ$10,000 or imprisoned for three months.
GP: But if the parents are in jail, who will monitor the kids then?
Now, kids can send their parents to jail for 3 months. Enough time to catch up on that backlog before they are released and build up that collection all over again.
