A report from the European parliament concluded yesterday that computer games are good for children and teach them essential life skills.
via Video games are good for children – EU report | Technology | The Guardian.
Saw it via a Tweet from Steven Johnson this morning. I asked him, “Do you think our books were read as part of the debate?” Or those of Jim Gee, Marc Prensky, etc… The article does say experts in games were brought in from numerous countries, so maybe.
There is discussion of the issue of stimulating violence, but the conclusion was that legislation was not warranted.
More interesting in terms of online, which is poorly regulated right now, was the notion of a mandatory way for users to report online games to PEGI:
The growing market for online games needed to be better controlled, the MEPs said, and online games should include a red button on the screen which children or parents could click to disable the game.
Manders said the button could also be linked to the administrators of the Pan-European Game Information age rating system, so that when a game player presses it, PEGI is informed and can investigate potentially disturbing games that are available through the internet.