And I suppose it was Monopoly’s fault for desensitising us to mortgaging properties and building loads of houses/hotels.

TD’s are a worse influence on children.

Elderly going without Food and Heating. People may lose their home. Glad to see she know what important.

Glad to see this is all that’s bothering them..

This feckin government would inspire more violence in me than any game… except tetris

I think that the last 2 governments are more harmful to children than any video game!

Aren’t FG trying to promote and encourage our indigenous video games industry? How’s this misinformed nonsense going to help? This is more political grandstanding nonsense from the Fidelma Healy Eames school of press releases – find out what’s popular and do a press release about it in a pathetic attempt to show you’re relevant.

I love playing this game… but my kids won’t get near it.

is the game not rated pegi 18? parents should parent and make a decision on what’s appropriate for THEIR children!

Any chance of these idiots doing the job we pay them for?? The country has completely collapsed and this useless fool is giving out about a game that is only legally available to people over 18. Are adults incapable of telling the difference between a game and real life? Isn’t this same idiot that drove car onto the front of the Dáil?? Useless excuse for a politician.

When I read this my avatar is literally how I looked. I’d expect this kind of nonsense from a US politician on Fox news but to hear it from an Irish one is boggling.

So stupid. Talks about entering an age of violence. It’d be hard to top the first half of the 20th Century before video games were invented! 

She is most definitely a noob tuber.

Mary is clearly a Grand Theft Auto fan, given her previous.

Is that all she has to worry about? What a clown.

I was reading this story with an air of mild disinterest when I saw the words ‘former Progressive Democrat councillor’, upon which I picked up the nearest AK-47 and went out on a shooting spree.

I totally agree with the politician because when I was younger I played Pac Man on my Atari and I ended up eating my whole family and some of my neighbours :-) nom nom

Video games carry age appropriate labels so parents should monitor that. T.Ds shouldnt be worrying bout this sort of thing with the country in the state its in. Maybe, just maybe, if her theory that violent games make violent kids is correct, then playing driving games would make better drivers? Go on Mary, give grand theft auto a lash!

She might be right, for the last 20 years i’ve been sneaking into the neighbours field and trying to stick as many items on my neighbours ass before it kicks the shite out of me..

It doesn’t like the bucket :-(

What an ill informed moron..

With the exception of the rare cases of actual psychopathy this is down to parenting and nothing else.

It’s an adult game, if a kid is playing it – that’s the parents fault.
If the kid doesn’t realise that these are games and not real life – that’s the parents fault.
If the kid doesn’t know that violence in real life is wrong – that’s the parents fault.

It’s been blamed on rock music (Marylin Manson anyone?), Hip Hop (Eminem??), porn, violent tv, and now violent games – ALL of which were not intended for children in the first place. The responsibility lies with the parents, and these are just distractions from people realising that having children entails more than just popping them out..

Another reason these Call Of Duty games do so well is because of the online interaction and teamwork involved – which funnily enough is a positive..
My partner plays these games and has done for years – he literally wouldn’t hurt a fly, neither would any other gamer I know, they see it as a release – a break from reality to let off steam.. Kind of how like Eminem said he writes violent lyrics so that he doesn’t become physically violent when they were trying to blame him a few years back.

If it wasn’t such a ethical minefield I would be advocating enforced sterility until people could prove they had the cop on to raise kids, but sadly the way the world is going it would probably render us extinct too quickly..

Of course they are harmful to children – that’s why they have an age limit. It is up to parents to prevent their children from playing them though, not for the government to dictate whether they can be sold or not.

Word is she’s going to propose a ban on the Life Of Brian just to complete the Government’s reversal of all progress made in the last two decades, evening TV will just be Dana Singing “All Kinds Of Everything” over and over. . .

Having they nothing else to do like save the country from ruin rather than talk bout video games!

What a plonker she is……

I hate this sort of news. No actually i hate the people who really believe this is the cause of our violent society. When Wolfstein came out. people werent killing everyone. This was also talked about When GTA was at its highest popularity. And violent movies in the 70′s didnt lead to the end of the world.

TDs, please stop with the crap. Focus on the real causes of violence. Poverty, drugs, and closing off those that society needs to help most. Not video games.

I played space invaders when I was a kid. The last planet I attacked was a pack of cadburys planets and I wipes out the lot of them. Maybe she has a point! On second thoughts maybe she should invade space. This is the kind of person the tax payer hands over €100,000 plus a year. God help us

They are a harmful influence for some kids. But that’s not the problem.
The problem is, is why the hell the parents are letting their kids play violent video games in the first place!

It’s not a game for children. Does it not have an over 18 certificate?

Has he not watched television in the last 10 years? And if he is going to pick on a video game then surely it should be the GTA or Saints Row series.

These ‘violent’ video games are to be played by people over the age of 18 not by children so there should not be an issue of whether children are being desensitised because they shouldn’t have access to material deemed not suitable for their age group. Their parents and games retailers that do not abide by the law should be called up on this, not the thousands of creative people in the video game industry who are just doing their jobs, and a great one at that. We need to start looking at ourselves instead of putting the blame of societies problems on everyone and anything else. Maybe someone should get her a copy of Skyrim as this TD seems to need a new way to spend her time.

The only reason their talking about it is the sales :/0 how can we increase vat or tax on then
I know let’s make people think there really bad for society and then tax the f#*k out of them :-(

Not really sure why “TD thinks video games with an 18+ rating shouldn’t be sold to children” counts as a news story…

I did like the “she encouraged parents to consider buying books for their children instead of video games” line though. I read the Wasp Factory last month and I think the violence in that affected me more than GTA or Call of Duty ever did…

That game is also developed in Ireland so she wants to have more people unemployed. Someone tell her to go back asleep

Ill-informed politician in public statement shocker

What were the irish sales figures ?

A stupid comment coming from a stupid person who is looking for attention and the approval of the older generations. What an uninformed fool.

Humans have been kicking the …poo out of each other for thousands of years. Did video games cause torturing in Medieval times? Did video games cause any of the planet’s wars? I’ve been playing games since the early 80′s, many of them violent. I have no desires to hurt anyone and I despise war. Manipulating digital avatars with guns in a virtual environment with other people is harmless fun that actually increases hand eye coordination and reaction times.

the Japanese play more video games than anyone, by this logic Japan should have a massive crime rate, in reality its one of the safest countries on earth.

She is a complete joke! I’d say FG are happy to have her in the party!!

The real causes of violence include poverty and lack of education, Maybe she should look around the dail and see where the real problems in this country stem from.

Video Games are rated based on their content just as films are and generally they are rated in a stricter manner than movies so this isn’t an issue to be moaning about in the Dail.

COD went hugely downhill for PC gamers after COD 4 modern warfare. Battlefield 3 FTW.

If u want to see the facts that debunk her BS search arstechnica.com using Violence

I agree kids shouldn’t be playing violent games like this, but doesn’t this have a 17+ age rating?
Parents shouldn’t be buying this for kids, and to be honest I suspect most aren’t. We’re long past the age where kids were the only gamers, Generation-X were the first major gaming surge, at that stage mostly kids were playing games, that’s not the case any more. Games are taking over from TV and Film as the major force in entertainment, these types of sales are bound keep on rising. Methinks the TD needs to take a look at the bigger picture. I doubt he has a problem with 18′s cert films?
What about terminator, aliens, band of brothers. etc…. what’s the difference?

Did “Romeo and Juilet” lead to a significant rise in teen suicides? When people go to war this is not their weapon of choice: http://pective.com/m/xbox-360-controller-2

Can you tell Mary to worry about the state of the hospitals and the other problems facing the country ! Let people’s pass time alone !

€100 tax on violent video games! Recession is over! Woo hoo!

I love when these people recommend books instead. She’s obviously never read American Psycho! One of the most twisted books in recent times, worse than what even the most twisted movie/video game allowed onto the market will portray.

Seriously this is just rehashed Tory shot from the 90s, FG are going to have to do better than this to create a bit of outrage. They will be on about video nasties next.

That Mary Mitchell-O’Connor wan seriously needs to fuck off. She’s done nothing but annoy me (and I suspect the male populace generally) since she got in. Absolute waste of space. Wish I was still a constituent of hers so I could register my discontent with her bullshit.

Ya see, this is the quality of TD we’ll get if gender quotas are introduced. Even more candidates shooed in because they need an extra male or extra female.

In other news, politicians who are bandying around the term a Billion, lead to nationwide desensitising of the figure 1000 million……….

These f****** are taken money out our kids pockets and all she is worried about is Call of Duty. Maybe the Irish people show become the call of duty and wipe out the TD’s. We could call it “The fight back starts now”.

dimwit. gaming needs to be encouraged. I would much rather those bloody teens skulking around the end of my road would go home and grab a dualshock. also, it is only people who have never played a game in their life say such factless tripe. some games are works of art, she actually doesn’t know what shes missing!

I remember when I was younger my favorite game was paperboy and shock at aged 14 went off and became a paperboy was not as fun as the game I soon learned. It’s another point being made to grab a headline as pointed out these games as was GTA over 18 so if a parents gives the game to there 12 ye old is where the problem comes. I was raised on computer games like these and it did not effort me.

What a pile of crap. These games don’t make kids violent, a lack of control from bad mothers and fathers dose that. It’s easy to blame every thing and everyone rather then point the finger at the Real problem, parents.

My kids play them and there more interested in there score and rank then the blood and guts.

I think she’s just pissed that she keeps getting quick scoped. Most people rage quit, she has a rant :-D

She should come down to earth and live with the poor people!
“Recessions” always carry crime and violence as people become saturated in despair and snap easily…or turn to drink or steal because Xmas is a bloody expensive time of year!
Video games!!! God forbid they might consider the fact that it’s because they have torn the arse out of our country…..people have nothing else to do

As a slight aside, will the gender-balance legislation include a caveat that women with double-barrelled surnames are treated separately to ‘normal’ women.

Mitchell-o connor, healy-eames, boyd-barrett (oops, I think he’s male ;-) ), etc

This is absolute BS. Society is at it’s least violent in the history of man. 70 years ago there was a war that killed 60 million+ people, and over 1,000 years ago people had jobs where they would come up with extremely creative ways of torturing people to death.
I’d say if you brought a person from the Crusades to the present, they would find our sensitivity to violence almost laughable.

I’m a member of Fine Gael, and even I think this is daft.

Better things for TD to be “concerned” about these days!!!

its the medium not the message the hurt locker wins oscars but cod gets lambasted and its 18s anyway

She may want to give a few of those videos to Dame Enda and Gilmore as they need a lot more aggression in their lives-they are behaving like big girls blouses when we need a few RAMBO’s.

Will she put buying the game down to her expenses now?

If you watch your kids playing video games you can see the effects on nerves etc. So I try not to let mine play games certified for ages above their own. But in a neighbours house or whatever, you are not in control.
My main problem would be the free bundling of over 18′s games with PS3′s etc., that will come from Santa. A lot of parents will not even look at what comes free with the console. I think that if shops are selling games consoles, they should not be allowed to bundle “free” over 18′s games with the gaming systems.

Killzone 3 was far more graphic and violent that any MW game what with the neck snapping, eye gouging, throat slitting, back breaking melee kills but that series is set in the far off future and the enemies are a race of human like aliens so that makes it ok……………………but when that day arrives and Mary Mitchell O’Connor finds herself forced to work in the mines of Helghan she’ll be damn glad to have people like me who have the experience in fighting them

This is disgraceful.
Anyone who plays video games knows that Battlefield 3 is a far superior game :P

Her real concern should be about how a game this bad can get sales figures like that. Developers aren’t even trying anymore. COD has gotten worse and worse in the last 5 years. Seems to be the way with most games these days.

We actually pay this fool? I wonder what 99% of youngsters would tell their parents christmas morning when they warm up there games console and open there presents to find a copy of harry potter………

She is about 20 years too late with this concern.

This poll has been misinterpreted in my opinion, people have voted with regard to “Are violent videogames bad for you” when the question was “Are violent videogames a harmful force for CHILDREN” now, any parent who buys a game like this for kids is an idiot, pure and simple.

To argue Mary Mitchell O’Connor’s point, if you replaced the bullets with marshmallows and soldiers with bunnies the game would still be fun, as it’s really just great fun to run around catching each other out and racking up points while doing it. The setting is just that, a setting.

I think she has allowed herself to blur the lines between murder in the physical world and “killing” generic, limitless, faceless antagonists.

If this lady wants to see violence then let her talk to working class families about the violence her government’s budget has done to them.
Let her talk to the single parent families.
Let her walk through the streets and alleyways of underprivileged Ireland that the policies of her government are turning into breeding grounds of violence.

It is politicians and their shadowy masters from the frigid halls of finance who perpetrate more violence on the world each day than any computer game. In Ireland politicians in general, as in most democracies, are not the best and the brightest but simply the most popular. The political world they inhabit a bizarre X Factor where the team that does the least damage is judged the winner. So we have the likes of this non-issue brought up by contestant number 115 hoping it might get her a few extra votes in the grand finale. Please, give us a break thats not our necks!

Kids love violence!

When I was a kid 50+ years ago we used to do really violent acts to rabbits and other animals we caught and there was no media influence back then.

It’s all part of a boys growing up to understand right and wrong, pleasure and pain etc…

Video games, films, internet and books are just a way to experience feelings and have little effect on how we grow up.

It’s simple don’t give the game to children and don’t let themnInto 18s movies and just get strict on age restriction cause it’s so lax in this country it’s really a joke, she is a fool of she thinks she can take on video games industry

Eek

Considering her performance driving down the steps of the Dail, maybe she should consider playing a bit of Gran Turismo

Oh you poor dear Mary, you just prove to all that you are really lost in the real world, sad rehashed comments.Go put the kettle on and careful you dont burn yourself with that violent hot water!

Driving off the plinth and all other Mitchell O’Connor jokes aside, she is not misinformed about violent video games and their effects on aggressive behaviour in children and adolescents.

There is as well established a link between the two as any that can be found in social science.

See 2010 cross-cultural meta-analysis
http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2010-2014/10asisbsrs.pdf

In previous depressions the unemployed youth would be sent off to fight in great wars now we send them to fight in virtual la la land.

an irish gaming team are european call of duty champions http://www.techtv101.com/games-reviews_irish-team-epsilon-win-cod-championship-european-finals …………………………..also this is the group i play with http://youtu.be/f6A-No9uTB8 please peeps take a look we just play for shits and giggles

Unbiased and balanced comment ,,,, lol,

What about UFC? This is real violence that should be banned