Gordon Brown: I'm not interested in censorship

Wednesday 5th September 2007 - 17:30

But tougher guidelines are on the way, Nintendo say's it can't be 'arrogant' and Sonic Rush Adventure DS screens

It has been a confusing 24 hours in the murky world of politics and videogames. Firstly, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in an interview with the Daily Mirror commented that he was 'aware of growing concern about the effect of screen violence on youngsters', and pointed towards bringing in tougher legislation to restrict violent content to youngsters.

But today, speaking at his monthly press conference in Downing Street, he clarified his point further. Mr Brown said: "I think we have got to look at this as a society. I hope this is one of the areas where there can be common ground between all parties. I think you need to review this with a large number of representative groups, from parents, from the different industries itself and from other areas of public life.

"This is not an area where you can proceed in my view without trying to establish both what the boundaries are and what is the consensus you can build around these boundaries. I am not interested in censorship at all, but I think we do need rules governing some aspects of the internet and videos where children are involved."

What all this means to the games playing public remains unclear. But we should safely assume that there is going to be some inevitable amount of red tape and buying restrictions that will further confuse the issue for both kids and adults.

Meanwhile Nintendo is taking its new-found success very much on the chin with its boss the legendary Satoru Iwata stating that he would make sure the company wouldn't become arrogant considering the phenomenal sales of both the Wii and DS.

"I believe my most important role right now is to prevent Nintendo from being in a company where people say, 'oh, Nintendo is arrogant, Nintendo has let its guard down', or 'Nintendo has lost its challenging spirit,' Iwata said to Newsweek. "We want to avoid all of the pitfalls that can come from losing one's momentum." With the kind of success those guys are enjoying it must be hard to not walk around the office without a head the size of Jersey.