“Although WoW is currently available to minors at age 12, Ross–Luttman told that she would like to broaden the restriction to adults only.”“
"Parents must know what danger potential exists in their children's bedrooms"
Mechtchild Ross–Luttman, Minister for Social Affairs in Lower Saxony, wants to enforce age restrictions on the sale of violent games through test sales. Patterned after undercover programs that target the sale of alcohol to minors, shop owners and salespeople caught selling restricted games to minors would face a fine of up to 50,000 Euros.(Via gameculture.com)
The proposal comes in response to evidence that 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer was a fan of Counter Strike and reportedly played Far Cry 2 the night before he gunned down nine of his former schoolmates in Winnenden last week.
But Ross-Luttman is not just aiming at so-called "killer" games, aka first-person shooters. The social affairs minister also wants to impose age restrictions on games like World of Warcraft. Although WoW is currently available to minors at age 12, Ross–Luttman told Welt Online that she would like to broaden the restriction to adults only.
The proposals come on the heels of a survey by the Kriminologischen Forschuginstituts Nidersachsen (the criminal research institute of Lower Saxony), which reported that 14,000 9th graders in Germany are addicted to videogames, particularly World of Warcraft and first-person shooters.
The KFN study queried nearly 45,000 9th graders about their online habits and found that 4.3 percent of girls and 15.8 percent of boys engaged in "excessive" play, logging more than 4.5 hours a day. In addition to the 14,000 classified as addicts, an 23,000 more were said to be "in serious danger" of becoming addicted. Together, the two groups account for more than 80 percent of students surveyed.
Ross–Luttman plans to present her proposals to other youth and social ministers at their next national conference.
"Parents must know what danger potential exists in their children's bedrooms," Ross-Luttman said.
Sven Petke, acting chairman of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party in Brandenburg, wants to go even further, suggesting that violent games should be prohibited altogether in Germany.
"These sorry efforts deserve to be banned," Petke said.
Petke also wants to extend such bans to the Internet and make service providers responsible for their enforcement.
"The time for excuses is over. We need web filtering by the ISPs to operate," Petke said.
Germany School Shooting, Video Game Violence
