Mothers Against Violence admit that games are not necessarily to blame

On a live BBC Radio Leeds debate yesterday, MAV reps actually admitted that games are not directly to blame for bad behaviour in children.

MAV sees its job is to “promote the eradication of violence and to relieve the victims of the effects of violence within the community”, and as a part of this, has been linked with attempts to ban certain game franchises. However, yesterdays spokesperson admitted that “I’m not directly blaming games, I’m blaming parents. If someone doesn’t do something where does it stop?”

MAV believe that parents don´t take enough notice of the information on game packaging, or actually check out what is actually happening on screen. Naturally, GTA was used as a focal point, proving once again that many people believe the series to be the norm, as opposed to a small part of a huge market.

Rockstar defended themselves well, however, by sending in a pre written statment pointing out that they “submit every game to the appropriate ratings body”, adding that the GTA series is “18-rated and is entertainment clearly aimed at an adult audience”.

Nice to see a parental group actually admitting that bad parenting at least has a hand in unruly kids. Next stop, how about those damned Aussie MPs?