UK government knife-crime expert seeks game tax

Glad I don't live in the UK

This is so stupid!!! The only people that should be taxed more are irresponsible and useless parents that have no control over their own children!

And that's comin from some on who used to play violent games on the Atari Jaguar when he was 3 years old. The point?! The graphics has got better.

All I have to say is, if you're over 18, play violent games, if you're under 18, don't.

Lets see, tax on moving, tax on farting (Trying to keep CO2 down here guys) tax on drinking water, tax on breathing, tax on "When Nature calls!" (Erm.... Public toliets anyone?!) Tax on looking at TV, tax on youtube, lets see, its an Tax-Free world! Right? Yes, it is, because you get taxed for completely *BEEPING* no reason whats so-whatever!!! Guys, can't we just scrap money, you know? print some more notes? make some more VIRUTAL credits or pounds?!?!

ShaneJoshua has a great point around the parents buying games for their kids. It's also education around these games. They've never played these kinda games before..... but the government, in my view, are going to rapidly lose parent backing as gaming becomes mainstream and the parents who used to amuse themselve with a spinning top are being replaced with the parents who've beaten COD 8 and GTV.IX - London. The parents who the government have been telling for the last 30 years that gaming is ruining their lives. Games are now selling more Pound in Tesco and Asda then DVD and Cds. Check out the games isles (sorry for the spelling) in these stores, compared to the shrunking DVD isles. They just want more money for our failing economy. Time to leave this dismal island

Samiii. I love your pavement tax.... but do I get taxed less if I don't wear shoes to reduce my carbon foot print?

O.k. so assuming game can be blamed for violent acts, does that mean that G. Bush and Tony Blair played alot of "desert strike" before the 2nd Iraq invasion. And I bet the Nazi war criminals are realy kickin themselves at not using the blame a game plea, the nuremberg trails would have been more along the lines of: "vell we ver all sat enjoying our weekly book club meeting, when Adolf came in and asked us all if we vanted to play a new game, "vell, why not" we said, "vot is it called?", and adolf replied,"RISK."...... next thing we knew, we had invaded poland."

They want to tax chocolate, tax video games and implement congestion charges. Your taxed to smoke, drink etc. Stands to reason that in the future I wont be able to leave the house without being taxed.

So the UK is in resetion (Ooops sorry... a credit crunch), the government is loosing 2% from the VAT reduction, less people are paying taxes because they're out of work, the cost of living is sky rocketing.... Simple really..... Increase taxes on a small percentage of games and we're all saved. I now don't have to worry about walking the streets at night. The same streets that aren't policed well due to lack of funds, that are filthy because the chavs that populate them have not respect for the street. It all make sense. Gaming is the evil that's poluting our country. Maybe in an ideal world we'd be able to put all of these fools in jail (if we had enough places for them) to show that if you stab someone you're gonna go down for it. Not get sent to some day centre where you can play pool and talk about your issue..... TOO FRICKIN' LIBERAL!!....No lets just blame it on the games industry. Gordan Brown is a kn*b.... A non-elected kn*b for that. In the words of Frank Gallagher "Make poverty history... Cheaper games now... Make powerty history... cheaper games now"

Ok! Ok! I got the best answer here! Hows about we, go kill someone for the sake of it, to prove that videogames don't motive people? Just one idea! Another one is, EVERYONE KICK GORDON PEEPOT OUTTA THAT GOVERNMENT THING! And we should put down, any fanatic so-called VIDEOGAME MENTAL EXPERTS, cause i tell you now, they ain't, FFS they aint even touched, or even played these games anyway, so seen videos, screenshots and text about the games! FFS, when will the world become senstiable again!?!?

it is as it always been, with any government. If your an honest hard workin person, they want you to: go to work, go straight home, sit down, watch banal TV, pay your taxes and shut the f**k up. Oh and pay this tax we just made up, cus we have to pay the 11 million we spent on compensation for prisoners who complained about the toilet facilities in jail(true)

so its bad to make violent video games. but its ok if you pay the government then release them. that way knife crime will be reduced wont it? its another silly money making scheme by the government to scam money from companies which leads to a higher price of games and therefore the consumers (me and you) suffer in the end. As the credit crunch starts to go, all the games on 360 and PS3 will go back to £40. how the hell is taxes gonna keep games out the wrong hands??? i knew politicians didnt have common sense, and now they've finally proved it. its useless voting in elections, its like the competition of the dumbest......thier all dumb its just a matter of how far they can take dumbness.

Yet again there is another nut bar trying to place the countries problems at the foot of the games industry and its consumers (which the government has now realised is something else they can try and put an additional tax on) The governments aims to cut knife crime are mostly all redundant as any one will half a brain will realise. Kids can get knives from their home/family kitchens not directly from the supermarket so whats putting an extra tax on buying knives really going to acheive? will your mum/dad cook of the house start using plastic knives to chop up the veg for dinner... The goverment will be wasting 2million to prove they just don't have a grip on reality or understand what's going on in the real world. Myself and many of my gaming friends/family have been playing games most of our lives, and nobody I know has at any time ever acted in a violent manner to anyone or thing. Where does this stop at? will kids have to pay more to see a 15 cert movie if there is a knife in it and so on... Gamers are being pushed too far and we are getting very fed up with the way we are being treated. Doesn't anyone realise that most middle aged families are going to be targeted by this tax, not children? an age group that already feels vastly over looked when it comes to support by the government in this current financial crisis?

Rock and roll, comic books, video nasties,binge drinking....playin judas priest backwards, and of coarse gaming, all these have been to blame for society's problems regarding young people. All of it complete codswallop, but i dont need to tell any of u guys that. The problem is the government dont want to look too deep into the causes of crime cus then the blame for the degrading society will fall at their feet. So they find a scapegoat. This time it is games, this also appeases the parents cus then its not their responsibility. It also gives the Daily mail subscribers somthing to rabble about. In truth, i think the government need something to redirect us away from the inevitable escalation in crime due to thier incompetance regarding the recession.(poverty, depression and an impotent justice system are the real cause of crime Mr Brown). The govnment know they could have implemented ways to halt the crunch but capitalist greed clouded thier vision. It is also a nice tax for them too, they are quite aware of this growing industry and they want their piece, just like beer, the main consumers are 18 to 30 year old men who have the most dIsposable cash, this group also tend to be the most apathetic voters, so not much loss in the voting. But their main concern is "GET EVERY BODY TO FORGET THE CREDIT CRUNCH"

Well it's been confirmed that the Stuttgart shooter played violent videogames so wait for the knee jerk reaction by the German government. It annoys me because that idiot may have played on or two violent games but watched 100s of violent movies but nothing said. If you are going to kill it does not matter what you watch or play you will do it. There are guys that read holy books that go on to kill but no one says holy books should be banned.

I suppose we'll hear in the next few days that the Guys that shot up the schools in Alabama and Germany played GTA4 and Halo3

I didn't realise the guy Richard Taylor is the father of Damilola Taylor. His son was on 11 when he was stabbed by two other children in 2000. I can understands what he is saying but really the buck falls with parents and shops if they dont sell and if parents pay attention it then goes a long way to solving the issues raised. We just pass the buck parents and the Government should be taking more responsibilty. What can you do though when a geverment does nothing to address it's teenage pregnancy rates either as you have kids having kids so they don't have the same moral compass. Videogames are an easy target but yet movies get no mention.

Just to add that Gordan brown needs to look at why the Immirgration in this country has almost doubled with people leaving for countries where they are tougher on their criminals.

Yeah, because the £30/£40 price tag on games isn't enough already? The government needs to remember who it is that votes for them and keeps them in power. They have already screwed this country up with it's 'oh, it's not their fault they want to murder each other for no reason; it's clearly the *insert scape goat here*'. If they do this, they'll be massively messing up one of our quickest ways out of this situation. Funny isn't it, I've played video games my whole life, yet I have no want to go out and murder people or commit any kind of crimes. I've watched movies too and that hasn't made me want to kill anyone. But you know, as long as it's not something that interests them, they can tax the hell out of it and make it as bad as they possibly want for those who do care. The government know they're in crap now so they're just trying to blame anything they can. ****ing fools, trying to ruin gaming.

What a prick Yeah, putting an insane tax on something that is totally harmless will totally keep it "out of the wrong hands and stop all crime". What a tool, just come out and say "WE WANT MOAR MONEYZZ!" and stop spreading this BS. I don't live in the UK but that's retarded. Guns aren't cheap but nearly everyone in the US has one, C WAT I DID THAR MR TAX MAN?. Rather than try and restrict the sales of harmless forms of entertainment, why not put more strict regulation on knives? Oh, but then knives really aren't the problem. People kill people, knives / guns don't. It's been that way throughout ALL of human history, there are always pathetic criminals and we just have to deal with them. But punishing all of your good law abiding citizens is NOT the way to do it, get your heads out of your posteriors politicians! @ Mikeyg756 I completely agree with everything you've said. Some people are just loonies, it sucks but that's life. It's dumb how people always need a scape-goat to blame instead of just blaming it on the person who did it. Stupid, makes me so mad.

any excuse to raise more money. gaming is expensive enough as it is.

This is ridiculous. What gave this guy the idea that video games are partly responsible for knife crime in this country anyway? This will not solve the problem in any way. Shame on our Government.

If the Priminister actually governed his country and stopped blaming things on everything else but the Governments soft policey in regards to setencing, how we are lead by softly softly policey in the pink and fluffy country we live in maybe people wouldn't be stabbing each other every five minutes. I hate this rubbish about video games. Everyone knows what is right and what is wrong you have a choice. Parents show no interest in what their children play what do they expect? Would you let a 8 year old watch SAW IV? If your going to stab someone or kill someone it does not matter what you watch, what you play you will do it whatever. I'd be all for a proper certificate system and to punish those that sell to underage kids but come on parents have to take the rap as well. I play violent videogames and I am a Police Officer but it does not mean that I am going to go and kill people because I played GTA. You know why? Because I know it's wrong

@ Thomas-Crown, we have free public health care remember. Thats why our taxes are so high. But more to the point this is just another dumb idea which won't be done because the UK (mainly scotland) are trying to encourage game development and sales since its has such a massive market share.

Will they do the same to violent films and music featuring violence?

As much as I wish it would, along with any other bright ideas the government come up with to stop kids playing GTA games and any number of military based games in which you carry a combat shank as part of your repertoire, this isnt gonna work. You cant stop kids from playing these awesome games, because well they are awesome. They think its not fair that their older brother gets to play them and they dont. The problem with these would-be-game-influenced-killers is that they already have it in them! If they arent inspired by video games then it will be the Saws, the Untraceables and any number of these films that depict gruesome deaths. Personally when ever I see some horrific on screen death, I always cringe, Im not sitting there going -Awesome-, they are supposed to shock people but it cant be helped if some nutter who is dreaming about doing these things is watching and not getting shocked, but inspired. Still, I think its largely up to the parents, to sit their kids down and say -Son, dont be an arse, you do realise its just a game yeah? Its not real, you cant go around killing people like Niko Bellic ok, that doesnt work in the real world. If you do the police are just gonna shoot you in the head yeah? And you dont wanna get shot in the head, it aint nice.- Or something to that effect and who knows it may actually work, but at any rate no amount of legislature is gonna change the people.

If raising taxes can lower crime rate... Man, then UK should have no crime at all since taxes are mighty high already. :P

the goverment in this country is clearly incompetent at every level, increasing the cost of certain video games is just another one of those ideas that they will put foreward and will be debunked immediatley by legal beagles, just like the EU told them last year that it was against human rights laws, when they tried to pass a law, banning anyone from the internet whe engaged in copyright infringement., and even if it does pass, it will alienate any gamers from voting for them at the next general election, this goverment ain't just shooting itself in the foot, they emptied the whole clip into it.

I dont think it is going to lower the amount of knife at all because the kids are killing each other because they are extremely dumbassed

Have we got such morons in the government that they would sit around and talk about knives in video games instead of the thousands of other topics which are just begging to be solved. Kids don't buy there games, there Mums and Dads do it. People are not influenced by a game to kill people, if someone wants to kill someone then they are insane, simple as that, they were always going to do it, you can't put all of todays youth in a white padded room and keep them shielded from the rest of the world to make sure they don't turn into a psychopath.

If this gets passed i am so going to f uck gordon brown up. The knife crime is a conspiracay, my lecture even tells me so, they claim its the highest its ever been, really? what about the medievil ages people were getting stabed left, right and centre.

*Sigh* Honestly if 70$ doesn't deter an under age kid from a game, what form of tax is going to stop them? When I was 12 I surely didn't have $50-70 to spend on a video game, chances are the parents bought the game... You can't stop that, no matter the taxes you pile onto a product.

I should also quickly mention this: How many games contain knives? Less than they think (although they aren't really thinking right now)... much less... So lets say theres a violent 18+ game where you SHOOT ALIENS, but its taxed because of PEOPLE getting STABBED? Given the knife crime plans are being announced now, I doubt this will fly yet won't see tax breaks...

This p***'s me off! The reason why are society is so bad is and will get whose is because, we have a unresponsible culture were it now normal to blame everything but those who are responsible. Such as the kids who commit the crimes and the parents of the kids. If the do this it will do nothing to stop crime

well this is bull s***, it's one of the things that our s*** political correctness crap where they start saying Random Politicain 1 - hmm it's not the kids fought what should we blame it on Random Politicain 2 - I know how about video games Random Politicain 1 - Yer great idea Gordon Brown - Oh and this work as a new strategy to get more money. IMO it's just an excuse to take our money while we are in the recession, also you dont see little kids playing Mario and then start taking mushrooms and jumping on peoples heads it's all BS.

Anyone who plays a game and immediatly feels they need to go kill someone doesn't belong on the outside of a rubber room anyway. Not once have i killed someone on GTA then had the urge to go stab a police officer. Just seems like another way for the g'ment to make cash, as they seem to believe we don't need any /rant

well, so much for freedom of expression. gangs running around causing trouble for everyone? never mind the breakdown of the nuclear family unit, the nannying welfare state, or the complete shambles that is the legal system, the obvious root to all the problems is videogames.. and, of course, they'll tax all games as being violent. all i can say is, mister brown, when's our general election?

Ooh this sounds like our govt. One of the few remaining industries that actually isn't dying and they want to kill it off. Sure, nice one Gordon, really well thought through. God I want Conservative back. I don't think i can take much of this "Nu-Labour" bs any more before I explode. It won't be games that make me go do something crazy, it'll be our own useless flop of a govt.!

Currently there's also a campaign to give UK developers a tax break... ...so at the moment the government wants to help our economy but at the same time hinder what kept us out of an even worse slump? A slump that usually causes more crime due to unemployment? I'm really starting to think that Labor wants to lose the next election...

Fu*king idiots trying to blame their shortcomings as a democratic government by doing the only thing they are educated in doing. Screwing the tax payer out of money. Games with violence are certified by age accordingly, as are movies. Unfortunately, as this thriving industry grows and becomes more interactive, this is the problems we have to put up with. Idiots.

Yes knife crime is a terrible problem here in the UK, but targeting violent videogames is a real cop-out. It provides a scapegoat so they don't have to play the political game of hot potato of facing up to the real causes of knife crime: a criminal justice system that views crime as an abstract, subjective concept, that seeks to 'understand the root causes' and places the concerns of the victims of violent crime on a par with the concerns of the perpetrators; barely limitless immigration of uneducated denizens of Third World countries; cradle-to-grave welfare recipients who breed hundreds of children, raise them to respect no authority, have no responsibility for their actions, and then foist them on society to run amok. Sure, levy another tax (thereby further punishing hard-working, law-abiding citizens) and then scratch your heads in 5 years' time when violent crime has grown exponentially. Idiots.

Lol whats next? Racing Games with Speed signs? and if you Go over the speed limit on the road in the game you pay a real life fine? Knifes dont kill people.. Its the person behind the knife that kills someone..

and here we go again, target something easy to make it look like their doing sumin about health problems and finding away to impose yet ANOTHER stealth tax so they can get more of our money to waste :( Its nothing to do with video games, if the SCHOOLS in this country werent so crap and the majority of PARENTS actually monitered their children like they should none of this would be a problem

I'd say he's an idiot but I suppose his son was stabbed and that is the guys motive.

Well I've been playing computer games since I was 7 and I'm 35 now, so that's quite a long time to be a gamer... I don't play as much as I used to, I think it's starting to wear off and I have other priorities in my life now (work, family, etc). But in all the years I've played games I've never gone out and stabbed anyone and aside from stealing a pen when I was 13 y/o (because I needed one for school, it had nothing at all to do with gaming) I've not done anything illegal. As other people have said, the problem isn't the games, the problem is the uneducated idiotic parents who buy these games for their underage children. I worked in the multimedia section of Toys R Us back in 2007 and the amount of parents that were trying to buy adult rated games for underage kids was incredible,. The attitude on them when you told them they couldn't buy it... "It's only a game!!!" is what most of them would sneer, and would get even more snotty when you'd point out "yeah, but it;s a game with an 18 certificate on it!"... Morons

How about the government educate parents to not buy their youngsters 18 rated games? Like I know so many parents that do. "Oh I bought my 11 year old Manhunt." "Um, you know what type of game that is?" "No..." "Clue's in the title and the 18 rating." I've been gaming for 15 years and I've never killed anyone or anything else illegal, probably a lot more of you who've gamed longer and not done anything that violent, yet us majority are ignored, go figure.

...yet religion, responsible for considerably more violence than all computer games put together, gets tax BREAKS!!!

UK gaming industry is already on the decline thanks to taxes so they want to add more taxes ? If they have any brains they wouldn`t want to loose out on a footing in a hugely increasing industry. But crimes have nothing to do with video games anyway.

lol make it harder for them to get computer games therefor putting them on the street which results in. you guest it more crime