Just recently Hillary Clinton has been doing badly in the primary elections. For everyone with any interest in video games this is excellent news. Because she is one of those politicians who attack video games to further their own career. Her official website says that a priority as president would be:  “Protecting children against violence and sexual content in the media and studying the impact of electronic media on children’s cognitive, social, and physical development.”  What this looks like is that she wants to take away our rights and freedoms.

But she has a long history of this, she asked the Federal Trade Commission to “take immediate action to determine the source of graphic pornographic and violent content appearing on the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game.”  And “determine whether an Adults Only (AO) rating is more appropriate than the current Mature (M) rating for the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas video game given this new, alarming content.”  She has said that she is going to “author a bill to create a federal law that would “put some teeth into video game ratings.” ”

Everyone reading this knows that hers is a massive over-reaction. Teens come across far worse things in their daily life than GTA. Youth crime is on a downwards trend and there is no proof that video games cause any harm. In fact the opposite is true, there are lots of studies that prove that video games are beneficial. You would think that Hillary Clinton could find better things to do with her time.

So why is she (and Gordon Brown on this side of the Atlantic) attacking an entertainment industry that does no harm? The answer is politics. They are doing it to create an image for themselves. By attacking games they think that they look strong, decisive and caring. All at the same time. And that the voters will like this which will enhance their political careers. We know that it makes them look stupid, misinformed and opportunistic. It should be harming their political careers. They are attacking an industry that provides employment to many tens of thousands of people and entertainment to hundreds of millions. And they are attacking it purely out of their own self interest.

Why aren’t they doing something about books like Tess of the d’Urbervilles (a great classical work of English literature) which contain sex and violence yet have no age rating whatsoever? Surely they aren’t being hypocritical?