UK government knife-crime expert seeks game tax

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's special envoy on youth violence and knife crime, Richard Taylor, has said that violent games are too cheap and should have "very high" taxes to keep them out of the wrong hands, according to The Daily Telegraph. Taylor is planning to raise the issue with Brown as one of a number of measures intended to reduce the number of knife-related crimes in the nation's capital and is currently preparing a manifesto for the prime minister.

When speaking to the parliamentary Home Affairs Committee, which is responsible for examining Home Office policies, Taylor was quoted as saying, "I have young people who I mentor, and I see them go up and buy the games and it saddens me that [the games] are being able to have such a negative impact." Taylor has been tasked by the government with helping to devise policies for changing youth behaviour. His own son, schoolboy Damilola Taylor, died at age 10 in the London inner-city suburb of Peckham in 2000 after being apparently stabbed with a broken bottle. Two other boys--aged 12 and 13 at the time of the incident--were later convicted of manslaughter in relation to the killing

Taylor's remarks coincide with a government plan to reduce the number of knife crimes. The £2m plan, Tackling Knives Action Plan, is due to be announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today. In related news, Independent Games Developers Association CEO Richard Wilson has lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority regarding another government campaign aimed at improving the quality and length of life of Britain's youth.

The advertisement, part of the government's much-heralded Change4Life campaign, features a child holding a PlayStation controller and the words "Risk an early death. Just do nothing." The campaign is supported by Cancer Research, the British Heart Foundation, and Diabetes UK. Wilson said, "This advert is absurd and insulting in equal measure. To imply that playing a video game leads to a premature rendezvous with the Grim Reaper is a non-sequitur of colossal proportions. Alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, obesity, and involvement in violent crime are forms of behaviour that risk an early death."