mystified

[winterbadger]

US politicians have stepped into the storm over secret sex scenes in the best-selling Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game.
The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly called for investigation into the companies behind the game.

The uproar is over explicit sexual scenes in the game that can be unlocked with software created by a fan.

Last week the game was given an adults-only rating, leading big US stores to stop selling the title.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4717139.stm

So why are people so outraged about the possibility that teenagers might be seeing (and vilrtually participating in) sex acts, but the same people seem to be perfectly OK with teenagers seeing (and virtually participating in) murder, arson, and robbery?

I'm not advocating a ban on violence in games, but I am advocating calling these self-proclaimed moral arbiters on their hypocrisy. Sex is bad, but murder is OK? It's inappropriate for a high school student to see two imaginary people copulating, but it's not a problem for that teenager to see one imaginary person empty an automatic weapon into another? It seems to me as if these people's priorities are in serious need of a refit.

Comments

[pusscat.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean. It reminds me of reading some noticeboards on www.imdb.com about the film "Green Mile". Now I think I am in a bit of a minority because I hated that film. I think it was one of the sickest, most sadistic and disturbing films I have ever seen and any supposed moral message was completely lost in the pleasure it took in the lengths it went to, first to show how evil the baddies were and then to give them their comeuppance. I was startled by the number of children who seemed to have watched it and were commenting (it's worth noting that none of them seemed to find it disturbing). But what really got me is someone commented on the sex scene (which, as I recall, is purely sound effect rather than any visuals anyway) and this woman was concerned about that because she had been considering letting her children watch it but not if there was S-E-X. Someone even suggested to her that it might not be appropriate for children as it's very violent, and she even answered that she wasn't concerned about that, it was the sex that worried her. Sometimes I really fear the future - what kind of adults are the kids of this generation going to grow into?

[dwarfrage.livejournal.com]

The same sort they have always grown into, glorifying violence and tabooing sex has been around for a long, long time.

Or to put it another way:
Are whores or knights idolized?