While European censorship laws are generally considered lax by American standards when it comes to nudity and swearing, violence is still a major no-no, and it appears the European Union is fighting many of the same battles being fought in the United States over regulating the sale of violent video games to minors. The European Union justice ministers met in Luxembourg on Wednesday to discuss possible regulation of what they refer to as “killer games.”
The discussion was spurred on by a school shooting in a North German town last November, when an 18-year-old student wounded 11 others. He was allegedly a game addict. Italian justice commissioner Franco Frattini brought the issue forward.
Given cultural differences between the 27 member states in the EU, the ministers have no expectation of actually reaching a universally agreeable definition of what is inappropriate. Instead, they will try to reach enforceable punishments for the sale of unacceptable games to minors, and allow member states to reach their own conclusions about what games should actually be restricted.
