Censorship of Video Games

Film and video games bring different things into society, as well as introducing new prospects and ideas. As the world changes, so does the media – new technology allows an array of fresh ideas to be displayed to the masses. This, however, also brings swearing, violence and sex to the big screen and video games. Manhunt's 2 release has now brought this issue to a light once more, but when did censorship for video games begin?

The Beginning of Video Games

In the 1950s, the original video games were being created, with Tennis for Two arguably the first in 1958. However, the video game industry was not truly formed until 1972, when the world was introduced to Pong, an arcade game.

From that moment, the video game industry was born and more games were soon in development – Space Invaders in 1978, Pac-Man in 1980 and Donkey Kong a year later all changed the face of this industry. But it wasn’t until 1992 that censorship was soon being called into action.

Mortal Kombat, an arcade game (later released for home video consoles), was released in the early 90s. The characters in the game were photo-realistic, and it was one of the first games to contain blood. It was a fighting game and nothing like it had ever been seen before – realistic violence and deaths in a video game was not something the public were expecting.

What Has Been Done

While it was praised for its game play, it was also subject to controversy – the tabloids soon cried out for video games to become part of the Video Recordings Act 1984. This didn’t happen, although the Video Recordings Act 1984 was amended in 1993, with a change to the definition to the term ‘video recording’.

It was corrected to include “any other device capable of storing data electronically” – this meant any DVDs, CDs and CD-ROMs with video recordings that were to be sold to the public had to be checked by the BBFC (though for CDs, it isn’t always the case).

This Act, however, did not go as far as video games, yet games with sexual content, scenes of graphic violence towards humans and/or animals must be put forward to the BBFC (British Board of Classification) for approval.

The Most Violent Game Ever?

In June 2007, the BBFC denied the classification of Manhunt 2, making it the second game to be banned in the UK (the first being Carmageddon, which was later released uncensored). Because of its extreme violence and nature, the game was given an ‘Adult’ rating in the USA, effectively banning it there too, as high street retailers do no sell ‘Adult’ rated games.

The creators, Rockstar Games (the makers of another controversial game series, Grand Theft Auto), modified and edited the game, which was accepted in the USA – the same edited version was rejected again by the BBFC. Petitions were filed but to no avail – the government backed the decision of the BBFC. Rockstar appealed the decision and won, and the BBFC lost the appeal to have it banned again – Manhunt 2 will be released in the UK.

Now it rises the question, what will parents think when this finally hits the shelves?

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