EDUCOMUNICAÇÃO

As crianças e a indústria dos jogos de computador em 2005

O National Institute on Media and the Family dos Estados Unidos da América acaba de publicar a décima edição do seu anuário dedicado aos jogos de computador: 10th Annual MediaWise®Video and Computer Game Report Card. Duas notas gerais, que não dispensam a leitura do relatório integral:

"Every child wh o plays video games is undergoing a powerful developmental experiment, the results of which we do not yet fully comprehend. This year, we find the video game industry exactly as we have found it every year we've compiled this report: even more powerful tha n it was the year before. In fact, the video game industry's growing sales numbers and ever widening influence have become so apparent and so well-known that describing the industry as powerful has become clichéd.
The industry?s efforts to be good corporate citizens have not kept pace with its explosive growth. The industry that generated 25 billion dollars in worldwide sales last year (nearly 10 billion in the U.S. alone) seems increasingly focused on the bottom line, at the expense of its customers, especially children and teenagers. Killographic and sexually explicit games are still finding their way into the hands of millions of underage players".

A este propósito, numa notícia sobre a apresentação deste relatório, referia ontem o diário Washington Post:

Groups Protest Cannibalism in Video Games
By ANDREW MIGAT

Associated Press, Wednesday, November 30, 2005; 11:05 AM
WASHINGTON -- Video games glamorizing guns and violence have long drawn the ire of media watchdog groups. This holiday season, they say they have found a bloody new wrinkle to hate: cannibalism.
Games featuring graphic scenes of cannibalism, "F.E.A.R." and "Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse," were among the 12 "games to avoid" listed Tuesday by the National Institute on Media and the Family.
"It's something we've never seen before," said institute president David Walsh, warning that today's games are "more extreme" and more easily available to underage kids than ever before. (...)