violent

Not one to keep his opinion to himself, former presidential candidate Ralph Nader has come down hard on video games. In fact, he has gone as far as to call the companies that make them "electronic child molesters."

In an interview with Politico yesterday, Nader blasted President Obama's gun control package that was unveiled last week. The two-time Green Party presidential candidate said that the president's plan needs to go further in regulating video game creators that add violence to their games.

"Television program violence? Unbelievable. Video game violence? Unprecedented," Nader told Politico. "… Read more

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has introduced legislation that calls for an investigation into violent video games and their impact on children in the wake of last week's horrific Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

In a statement released yesterday, Rockefeller said that his legislation enlists the National Academy of Sciences to "investigate the impact of violent video games and other content on children's well-being." If the organization is given the green light, it will present its findings within 18 months to Congress, the FTC and the FCC.

"Recent court decisions demonstrate that some people still do … Read more

Video games are the subject of so many studies, not to mention findings. Some suggest cognitive benefits, others behavioral issues that may or may not persist over time.

Many of these studies are small enough to require further investigation, and the journalists reporting on them often confuse correlation (when results happen in tandem) with causation (when one action is shown to result from another).

A new study out of Ohio State University suffers from a small sample size (70 participants), but its findings -- that people who play violent video games for three consecutive days show increases in aggression and hostility … Read more

Google is using technology to try to curb violent extremism around the world. Working with a think tank, venture philanthropists, and other partners, Google Ideas helped launch a new online network called Against Violent Extremism (AVE) today.

"What do a former violent jihadist from Indonesia, an ex-neo-Nazi from Sweden and a Canadian who was held hostage for 15 months in Somalia have in common?" director of Google Ideas Jared Cohen wrote in a blog post today. "In addition to their past experiences with radicalization, they are all also members of Against Violent Extremism."

AVE's goal … Read more

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have been studying the effects of media violence for more than a decade. Now, for the first time, they are showing that violent video games directly alter brain activity--not after years of play, but after one week.

It must be noted that the researchers, who presented their findings at this week's Radiological Society of North America annual meeting in Chicago, studied only 28 young men, ages 18 to 29. In other words, these findings are preliminary at best.

Still, the small study shows a direct relationship between playing violent video games … Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down California's attempt to ban the sale of violent video games to minors, arguing that the current ratings system is enough to let parents make informed decisions about what to buy. Unlike the MPAA's rating system, which led me and my 4-year-old to "Cars 2." Thanks for that, MPAA. Also, LulzSec tucks its puppykicker tail and runs away, but not before hacking a librarian and book-sharing Website. Nice.

When it comes to buying different types of mature entertainment content, it's most difficult for children to get their hands on mature-rated video games, the Federal Trade Commission has found.

In an "undercover shopper survey," the FTC found that 13 percent of underage teenagers were able to buy mature-rated games between November 2010 and January 2011, down from the 20 percent of kids who could do the same in 2009. It was easiest for kids to get their hands on music CDs featuring explicit content, the FTC discovered, with 64 percent of attempts being successful. That figure … Read more

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded:

The Internet goes nearly silent in Egypt during widespread violent political protests

News Corp. announces plans to launch The Daily, its iPad-only publication

Gmail offers a new feature to give you a pop-up every time you get an e-mail or an instant message

The new version of Skype for Mac has a group chatting option

Hulu may be planning to rebrand itself as the Internet's cable channel

Apple may be prepping to launch a new lineup of MacBook Pros

LinkedIn has filed for an IPO

Editors' note: This is a guest column. See Larry Downes' bio below.

The U.S. Supreme Court today heard arguments in Schwarzenegger v. EMA, a case that challenges California's 2005 law banning the sale of "violent" video games to minors. The law has yet to take effect, as rulings by lower federal courts have held it to be an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.

There's little doubt that banning the sale of nearly any content to adults violates the protections of free speech, including, as decided last year, video depictions of cruelty to animals.

In … Read more