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Business question from Keith Vaz (Labour) in the House of Commons on Thursday, 1 December 2005. It occurred during Business statement on Business of the House.


Business of the House

May we have a debate next week on regulation of the video games industry? Has my hon. Friend seen early-day motion 1172? [That this House denounces the recent rise in violent video games; condemns the forthcoming video game Bully, which allows players to adopt the persona of Jimmy Hopkins, a 15-year-old thug who has been incarcerated in a boys’ boarding school, and in which points can be scored by terrorising other pupils with a range of physical and psychological abuse; further notes with grave concern that last year more than 31,000 children and young people spoke to a ChildLine counsellor about bullying; and calls on the Government to urge the British Board for Classification to take a much more cautious approach with this game and ban it from being sold in the United Kingdom.] If my hon. Friend has seen the motion, he will know that Rockstar has decided to publish a game called ““Bully””, and that a central character is someone called Jimmy Hopkins. Players will be given points as the character terrorises other schoolchildren psychologically. Given the rise of bullying, I believe that the video should be banned. May we have a debate so that we can hear the Government’s view?


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
440 c394-5 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Bullying Children Young people Regulation Video games
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk