Media Morals

For a number of years violence in the media has been causing debate and argument, be it on TV, in films or computer games, especially in terms of its effect on children. The subject of the game Grand Theft Auto has arisen on more than one occasion during my course and I have always backed it up. As far as I was concerned if parents were worried about children playing this game it was up to them to regulate its usage and the majority of adult minds are unimpressionable enough that this sort of game would not have a huge effect on them. That was, until recently.

I bought the game for my boyfriend who liked the idea of being given a whole city to do what he wanted in. As I watched the game unfurl it seemed harmless enough, yes it is violent but both my boyfriend and I are aware that you can’t actually steal random cars and run-down pedestrians and to be fair if you are too reckless in the game you do have to escape the police.

However, I was horrified when one of the tasks that you are required to carry out, as Niko the main character of the game, was to arrange a date with a gay man and shoot him. It was bizarre, the player was given no reason to shoot this guy and literally the only thing we knew about him was his sexuality. I couldn’t believe that this had made it through the regulators. It turned out that later on in the game Niko has a friend who is also gay. I believe that this was put in so that the makers of the game could deny any kind of homophobic accusations.

This kind of gay-hate breeding material is shocking to me. The fact that I always used to back this game up in arguments of its morality makes me feel almost betrayed. To me, explicit violence and car stealing in this game does not have a direct effect on our society, criminals are likely to be that way for other reasons, not just because they played a game, otherwise we’d all be doing it. However, a homophobic attack on a character is a whole different matter. It seems to give the message that it is okay to hate gay people and although I don’t think that my boyfriend is now going to become a homophobic bastard, people who are already inclined to think that way would only be encouraged that they are correct and that is what is so worrying.

YouChoose

Regulating YouTube seems like a near impossible task and something that has sparked up a great deal of debate lately. Whilst discussing this issue in a seminar and hearing the views of some of the other people on my course it struck me that, in the future, the opinions of these people could be more than just opinions, they could be reality. The students on media courses today will be professionals in the media industry in a few years time. They will put their ideas into practice, deciding if sites such as YouTube will be regulated and they will be learning how to do this now.

So what are your opinions? Should YouTube be more restrictive about what users can and can’t post? Is it even possible and if so, is it even worth it? Already you are able to report videos which you deem to be inappropriate, a sort of public interactive regulation, and it is either removed or flagged as unsuitable for children, meaning that only those who are logged in as over 18s can view it. Of course these methods are flawed, inappropriate videos are not always flagged as such, if the right kind of ‘busy body’ never comes across them, and setting yourself up with a YouTube account where you appear to be a few years older than you actually are is not difficult. It is also possible to abuse these rights. My boyfriend and his cousin posted a video spoofing the Harry Potter films which was flagged as being unsuitable for children, presumably by someone opposed to this kind of Potter mockery. The video did not contain any X-rated material so he and his cousin appealed to YouTube and the restriction was removed, but it just goes to show that it is not a seamless system.

As far as I’m concerned, it is up to a child’s parents to regulate their internet usage, just as it is up to them to ensure their children do not gain access to inappropriate video games or films. The regulation of YouTube would limit the freedom the internet offers and where would we draw the line? What about blog sites such as this? Would we have to have everything we post approved by website regulators before anyone could read it? Have every Facebook post sent through a regulation office before it arrived on the intended recipient’s wall? Surely this would detract from the immediacy and freedom we are given on the internet? A place where everyone can become a part of the media industry, be it as a journalist, film-maker or photographer. The internet provides you with the opportunity to share your world with millions, no matter what it is you care to share, and that can’t be a bad thing, can it?...