Effects Of Video Game Censorship

One positive effect of video games is that it has increasingly become an online social tool but is often criticised. Players are now able to play games together across vast distances over the Internet, speaking to online gamers through their headset. Players can also sign up to MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) and play online with other gamers at time. This increases their communication skills through the virtual world instead of real life.
The public debate of video game censorship began in 1976 when Exidy’s arcade game Death Race was released, the player would have to kill the “gremlins” and as the player kills them they would scream and be replaced by tombstones. Censorship reached its breaking point in 1992 when

Mortal Kombat, Lethal Enforcers and Night Trap contained brutal martial arts and FPS shooting. At this point games weren’t being regulated and included adult content that children and teenagers could play. The general public demanded regulation and in 1994 Entertainment Software Rating Board was formed, assigning age and content ratings. The ESRB shared concerns over the extreme use of violence, torture, sex, nudity, racism, offending religious beliefs, obscene language and the portrayal of drug use, gambling and criminal behavior. Mark Wolf explains that censors believe that this content can stimulate aggressive and antisocial behavior and desensitize young individuals. The aim of censorship is to restrict children’s access to potentially harmful video content. In one case in 2014, Eldon Samuel III, a thirteen-years-old teenager was charged on two