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Internet and Video Games

I did touch on those issues, although I did not point out the Government’s failure to respond fully to them. The hon. Gentleman is right to say that the Committee expressed concerns about those things, and I hope that the Minister will rectify the Government’s failure to respond. The hon. Gentleman anticipated entirely correctly that I want to talk about video games in the final part of my remarks. I know that the right hon. Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz), who chairs the Select Committee on Home Affairs, has several concerns about this issue, so he has arrived at just the right moment. Part of the problem with video games, as with video content, is that there is no hard evidence to prove that playing a game will lead someone to go out and commit a crime or physical attack. Nevertheless, we agree that there is a probability that it could occur, and there is anecdotal evidence to support that view. The Video Recordings Act 1984 provided that games should be classified, that it is necessary to restrict certain games to people over a certain age, perhaps 15 or 18, and that there would be games that should be banned entirely. That system has been generally successful since then, although there is often controversy about individual games. I know that the right hon. Gentleman has expressed concern about particular games in the past, and might do so again this afternoon.