In a recent Commons hearing regarding the institution of content filters on gaming systems in the UK, Matt Lambert, head of corporate affairs at Microsoft echoed the sentiments that gamers have held for years. In what many people would consider a display of basic common sense, Mr. Lambert asserted that parents, not content providers or governing bodies, should be responsible for monitoring and restricting the content their children have access to, and that instituting a government mandated filtering system would send the UK back to the “Dark Ages”.
Putting aside the questionable motives of organizations that seek to create these filters, it becomes easy to see that the heart of their argument is at least well intentioned, seeking to protect children from media they may not be psychologically equipped to handle yet. Yet, as Mr. Lambert pointed out, the systems being sold today already come with content filtering options, it’s simply that most parents don’t understand them.
Seemingly as a rebuttal, John Carr, the executive secretary of the Children’s Charities Coalition for Internet Safety, stated that due to parents’ ignorance of security settings and the industry’s inability to force people to use them the government should step in as the arbiters of what is acceptable for children to be exposed to. Right, because when people refuse to accept responsiblity for circumstances over which they have near-total control it’s always a good idea for government to step in and regulate until the people are appeased, or silent, whichever comes first.
While Mr. Lambert’s statement is certainly an alarmist overreaction, it’s difficult not to agree when you consider the fact that the UK is one of the most surveilled countries in the world. At this point, hearing about this kind of issue even being raised, especially when there are already content filtering options in place, doesn’t even seem to raise our self-righteous anger anymore. All we can do is sadly shake our heads and remember the words of one of the great philosophers of our time, “Parents just don’t understand.”
[Via GamePolitics — Thanks, Justin]
