Ralph Nader: game companies are 'electronic child molesters'
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Political activist criticizes President Obama's new gun control plan for not cracking down enough on violent games.
Ralph Nader, outspoken political activist and former presidential candidate, has slammed the gaming industry. Speaking to Politico yesterday, he criticized President Barack Obama's new plan to reduce gun violence in the United States. He said it does not go far enough in regulating game creators and publishers, which he described as "electronic child molesters."
“We are in the peak of [violence in entertainment]. Television program violence? Unbelievable. Video game violence? Unprecedented,” Nader said. “I’m not saying he wants to censor this, I think he should sensitize people that they should protect their children family by family from these kinds of electronic child molesters.”
Obama's $500 million, 23-point plan directs the Centers for Disease Control to conduct further research into the relationship between virtual violence and real-world violence. Separately, Utah representative Jim Matheson has introduced a bill to Congress that would make Entertainment Software Ratings Board ratings legally enforceable.
Nader's comments come a month after the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. that left 20 children and six adults dead. As GameSpot sister site CNET points out, this is not the first time Nader has used the phrase "electronic child molesters" to describe the gaming industry.
Following the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colo. where two students killed 12 classmates and one teacher, Nader said corporations like game companies were partially to blame.
"All this is fine with the companies; these boys and girls spent more than $25 billion last year, and what they got in return is violent, addictive, and tawdry sensuality," Nader blogged at the time. "These electronic child molesters have little sense of restraint or boundaries. Their odious fare is becoming more coarse, more violent, and more interactive to seduce these youngsters into an addiction of direct video game involvement in the mayhem."
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
705 comments
Why don't we hear any politician speak up against all this nonsense?!
Not a sane voice amongst them it seems.
Big surprise, another politician with his head up his ass. Guns and video games are always crucified when a tragedy happens. Understand that you can take the guns and the games away and there will still be violence. You can make it harder for people to buy guns legally or just flat out ban the sale, but a lot of violence tends to happen by people who seem to get guns illegally, why aren't we trying to do something about that? Also, maybe the parents that allow their 12 year old kids to play violent video games should be criticized. He's says that these games "molest children"; when a lot of these games shouldn't even be played by children.
1 Like Why does'nt that dumb@ss Nader talk about how the Sandy Hook shooter was strung out on the drug, FANAPT?!?!?!?! Since the media is sponsored by the drug companies, they are constantly trying to hide the actual root cause of all this violence.
Gamers and people in general need to realize the MSM is just a money hungry machine that will say anything the corporations tell them to.
8 Like He's just a silly old man babbling about something he doesn't understand. His opinion is valueless to me.
4 Like First he ruined cars, now he's trying to ruin video games. When's this guy gonna die and leave us in peace?
@BloodGod65 Yeah I thought he was the reason seat belts were mandatory today on cars...if you ask me that's a good thing.
6 Like @BloodGod65 He didn't ruin cars. He greatly improved automobile safety in America. That being said, he's completely off his rocker in regards to video games. Not only are the vast majority of gamers adults, but his relation of game companies to child molesters is a disgrace to anyone who has actually been molested.
9 Like WHAT DON'T PEOPLE UNDERSTAND? IT'S NOT THE VIDEO GAMES FAULT FOR VIOLENCE. IT'S NOT THE GUNS FAULT. IT'S PEOPLE WITH MENTAL DISORDERS!! I HATE HOW EACH SIDE TRIES TO SHIFT BLAME TO ONE ANOTHER... NRA SAYS ITS VIDEO GAMES... GAME INDUSTRY SAYS ITS GUNS... THEY ARE BOTH WRONG!!! IT'S A SICK DEGENERATION OF SOCIETY AND MENTAL HEALTH. IF YOU HAVE A SON OR DAUGHTER WHO CAN'T HANDLE THESE VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES THEY SHOULD NOT BE PLAYING THEM. THEY ARE RATED M FOR A REASON. I HATE HEARING 12 YEAR OLDS PLAYING COD!! THEY SHOULD NOT BE PLAYING THOSE GAMES!!! UGH
@maxp84 it's not people with mental healths fault. there are millions of them with severe mental problems and only a small percentage commit crimes...less than supposedly sane people even.
17 Like Also.... what a dbag.... I mean, my family dealt with ACTUAL child molestation by an elementary school principal! What a slap in the face to families that have actually dealt with something so horrible....
1 Like Of you course you can trust the CDC... the guys who actually said last year that there wasn't a zombie apocalypse happening... yeah, those guys will be able to track down the cause of violence super quick! Not that it has anything to do with the horrid state of: the economy, schools and prisons (no real difference between the two) and health care. Maybe if the poorest had a decent education and decent health care, many wouldn't feel the need to turn to violence as a means to their needed ends.
@quantumtheo In the CDC's defense, they only made that statement regarding the zombie apocalypse because so many stupid people kept asking.
@quantumtheo I think the violence they suggest is more along the lines of random and pointless shootings. That Newtown prick gained nothing through his actions that a better economy could have prevented. But all the rest I agree with. Like why the fuck is the Center for Disease Control on this. Its not a fucking bio-contagion or anything.
1 Like @LocoBaxter @quantumtheo Yeah, and those shootings can be linked to anti-depressant or anti-psychotic drugs much more easily than to video games.....
@TheHappyDrunk @quantumtheo @LocoBaxter LOL, i'll have to go back and tell the 15 year old me that... :P You'd think my parents would've cared....
@quantumtheo @LocoBaxter If you are not being advised about the side effects, you need to complain about your pharmacist. Pharmacists should either go over the potential side effects with you or give you a print-out with all known side effects AND ask you if you have any questions.
2 Like @LocoBaxter @quantumtheo And again, I have personal experience with those drugs, was put on prozac at age 15! And then paxil 2 years later.... we are the only country that prescribes drugs like that to kids under 18! They don't go through the massive amounts of side effects with you when you get those drugs either, so you get caught off guard a lot of the time by things you never thought would happen to you.
6 Like LOOK OUT AMERICA! Not only are video games touching your kids in their hearts, they are also touching them in their pants.
This deserves a facepalm hard enough to knock my head clean off....what unadulterated crap.
1 Like This is the man who kept the 2000 election close enough to be stolen. Don't care what he has to say.
2 Like @deathstream 2012 was stolen. We need a president who cares more about doing what's right than what's popular.
1 Like @Jock_Nerd @deathstream Actually it's all elections, stolen by banks...... and nadar has been at it since the '70s....
4 Like Out of touch senior citizens should not be allowed to influence policies that don't affect them in the slightest.
17 Like ::shrug:: You have a non-tech generation of self-absorbed, narcissistic ideologues who are desperately trying to impose their "old ways" on the children coming up.
I just listened to a psychiatrist on TV talking about how dangerous the internet is, and how social networking is destroying our communities and how we interact with each other.
The facts are, the internet and social networking is destroying THEIR VIEW of what our communities should be, and how people should interact. The community of the future, and how we interact socially in the future, will be totally acceptable to this new generation (I'm 58 years old BTW so its an outside observation I offer here).
Are there problems with the internet and social networking? Yes, of course there are. However, these problems don't come close to the problems we had in the 50 and 60 when our grand-parents (and the community in general) kept themselves self-medicated with alcohol and valium, or the pot, acid and cocaine our parents self-medicated.
Is it over-the-line to point out the raging advancement of AIDs during the 80s and 90s wasn't the result of out parents keeping their panties on?
"Acceptable Social Habits" should defined by those living in that society, and should not be dictated by dinosaurs like myself, trying to hold on with our finger-tips to what we had and would like to keep.
I am sure the Victorian social community thought their social standards were just divine. And I bet Genghis Khan thought those around him had excellent social standards.
RANT OFF
1 Like is it to boost his political ambitions or what!these guys just don't understand our industry let us be!
1 Like I can't wait for all the non game playing baby boomers to be out of politics. If they tries this BS on Movies, TV, or the media there would be an uproar. At least we still have the right to bear arms, but maybe just not in a video game! WTF
1 Like What Nader has called the gaming industry is a new low. It's well past time that political figures be held to the same accountability as us on what they say.
1 Like I have to ask since I am becoming curious about this, this rising number of school shootings and what-not limited to North America or is it happening world wide?
1 Like @Valen_Ca I can't remember the last time a school shooting happened here in ireland....oh wait...it never has! go figure
@Valen_Ca Ireland = violent games + No guns = no school shootings...
Now ask me what i think is the cause for school shootings pls...
1 Like @strandny @LesserAngel @spookysev @Valen_Ca The point I'm trying to make is that there always seems to be a reason for violence. Ireland may not have school shootings, but they still have other violent BS, regardless of their gun laws.
@LesserAngel @spookysev @Valen_Ca
Are we talking about school shooting or politically motivated terrost acts?
@spookysev @Valen_Ca Didn't Ireland have their own problems though? Like the IRA and what not?
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