Child’s play: Invasion of violent online games

Matheos Viktor Messakh ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 12/06/2008 10:50 AM  |  Lifestyle

online games: An online game center in Rawa Belong, West Jakarta, displays a banner of the popular Ragnarok game to attract young gamers. (JP/J. Adiguna)

If you enter an Internet cafe in Jakarta, especially on the weekend or after school hours, you will more than likely encounter this situation: a bunch of kids occupying most of the computers
for hours on end playing online games.

Nowadays, popular game trademarks — such as PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox, Gameboy and Sega — are familiar to most children, regardless of their economic background.

Kids can play computer games for a few thousand rupiah at any neighborhood warnet (Internet cafe).

Boby Guntarto of Yayasan Pengembangan Media Anak (YPMA), a foundation that monitors sources of media for children, said more attention should be given to the affect of online and interactive games on children’s minds, as access to games becomes easier and cheaper, with limited regulations imposed.

“With just Rp 3,000 kids can enjoy adult games in any gaming center. There are regulations for TV broadcasting, but there are no regulations to protect our children from online games,” said Guntarto.

In the past few years, online gaming has become increasingly popular among younger children, with online game centers mushrooming around the country.

Multiplayer online role-playing games are the favored variety.   

A 2006 survey by the U.S.-based Entertainment Software Association revealed that 44 percent of some 1,700 elementary school-aged respondents said they played online games. This number had increased by 19 percent from the previous year.

Meanwhile, a 2006 survey by YPMA involving 939 elementary school children in Jakarta and Bandung revealed that the most preferred birthday gifts were video-game consoles and cell phones.

The survey also found that 89 percent of the respondents played video or PC games, with 83 percent playing at home, 11 percent at gaming centers and six percent in friends’ homes.

As many as 34 percent said they played the games alone; 31 percent said they played the games with their friends or with other members of their family; and four percent said they played the games with their parents.  

The survey also found that seven out of 15 children preferred adult games, such as the violent carjacking game series Grand Theft Auto (GTA).   

Guntarto said a high percentage of game software sold in the country was pirated.
“Raids conducted by the authorities usually focus on porn VCDs and DVDs ... they don’t confiscate (pirated) computer games because they think they are harmless,” he said.

In reality, many games with violent and sexual content can be easily found on the Internet and in gaming centers frequented by children.  

“Fake (classification) labels allow children to access adult games ... even if the label is original, some parents don’t understand the meaning of the labels, or the game center owner just doesn’t care,” said Guntarto.

Classification labels used by The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) are dividing into EC (suitable for children aged 3-10 years); E (all ages); E10+ (10 years or above); T (13 years or above); M (17 years or above); AO (adult); and RP (rating pending).

With the invasion of adult video games, children have become increasingly bored with E-rated games such as Super Mario Bros. or Harvest Moon, which are seen as less challenging.     

Role-playing games involving crime, street life, wars between gangs and the mafia are now dominating the online gaming market. Crime Life: Gang Wars, The Godfather and the controversial GTA, which has been banned in several countries, are just some examples.  

GTA has even been linked to criminal acts committed by children in the U.S.

On Oct. 20, 2003, 16-year-old William Buckner and 14-year-old Joshua Buckner fired shotguns at random vehicles in Tennessee, killing motorist Aaron Hamel and injuring another severely. The step-brothers later told the police their actions were inspired by the GTA III game.

In 2005, 18-year-old Devin Moore killed two police officers and a police dispatcher. Upon his arrest, Moore told investigators, “Life is a video game, everybody has to die sometime”. He claimed he was unduly influenced by GTA III and GTA: Vice City.

In 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 15 people, including themselves, at Columbine high school in what appeared to be a chilling imitation of Doom, a first-person shooter game the two were known to play.

Meanwhile, the U.S.-based World Wrestling Entertainment SmackDown TV show, which spawned a series of games with the same title, sparked controversy in 2006 after several children were injured and died after allegedly imitating the game.

In November 2007, policed connected the death of nine-year-old Reza Fadillah in
Bandung with a mock SmackDown match between three friends.

The tragedy was repeated in June 2007 when eight-year-old I Made Adi Swandana Putra of Denpasar died after imitating the wrestling game with his friend.

Chairman of the Indonesian Internet Kiosk Association (Awari), Irwin Day, said it was hard to protect children from accessing adult games.

“We provide a filter to prevent children from accessing adult content through our Internet centers, but we still don’t know what to do about games, which may have harmful content for children,” Irwin said.

He added Awari was preoccupied with the problem of Internet content as opposed to gaming content.

“We are still busy dealing with how to protect children from adult content (on the Internet).”      
He said stakeholders needed to adopt the internationally recognized ESRB classification system or come up with a national rating system.

“Filtering is one way, but it doesn’t guarantee that all adult content will be blocked. Parental control is still important,” Irwin said.

“Parents shouldn’t let their children access the Internet or play alone, whether at home or Internet cafes.”

Guntarto said gaming centers needed to come under government control.  

“There should be sweepings of all game centers ... their software should be original and there should be a regulation on ratings.”

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