Iain Duncan Smith has a go at games

By Ellie Gibson Published 25 January, 2010

Singles out that pesky Grand Theft Auto.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has claimed videogames are messing up the kids with their crazy violent ways.

"We are driving children to lose their childhood," he told The Times. "Some videogames are incredibly violent, like Grand Theft Auto."

But what about the ratings system, the one designed to prevent kids from playing games with dodgier content? "They are meant to be 18 but nobody cares what it says on the label." Oh.

According to Duncan Smith, it's not just games which are responsible for Britain's decline - boozing is to blame too. "Alcohol is every bit as dangerous as illegal drugs," he said. "You can argue that it’s more dangerous than heroin because it’s easier to get."

So just say no, kids, whether it's heroin, Sailor Jerry's or the Ballad of Gay Tony.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (54) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • dsmx #1 2 years ago

    If you can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality then you shouldn't be out in the real world anyway. Politicians also need to realise that gaming is a massive market that brings in a lot of money for the UK economy.

  • Quint2020 #2 2 years ago

    Don't say no to Sailor Jerry's though, it's delicious!

  • Mr_Git #3 2 years ago

    Aah Sailor Jerry's. I wonder if it's too early for it, I do have the day off.

  • Iain815 #4 2 years ago

    Twat doesn't deserve to share my name.

  • the_dudefather #5 2 years ago

    "nobody cares what it says on the label"

    Better ban all those delicious alchopops in the plastic bottles under the sink then

  • Ignatius_Cheese #6 2 years ago

    The silent man talks out by jumping on the bandwagon... about 2 years too late!

    Sounds a bit like most Tory policies ;oP

  • SYS64738 #7 2 years ago

    I was listening to a radioshow recently where the topic was violent media and children. You know, the type of show where only chav's and demented (isn't that the same) people are calling in. When questioned about if and why they would give their kids games such as GTA or MW2 they responded "well yeah cos they see violence on the telly all day anyways" or "yes cos the kids love it".

    Rating systems aren't the problem, the problem is who is allowed to have children and who's not.

  • Hermiod #8 2 years ago

    MP in "out of touch" shocker!
    Edited by 1 at 25/01/10 @ 09:07

  • djed #9 2 years ago

    Seems to me it's he who can't tell fantasy from reality. Checked your foreign affairs lately? Yeah, you're engaged in two wars, killing thousand of incidentally real people. But I guess the prime minister coming on TV proclaiming the virtue of killing people has no effect on the kids, right?

    Fuck the kids and fuck you too.

  • SAMagic #10 2 years ago

    This is likely part of the Tories "Broken Britain" campaign in the run-up to the election. Expect more of it to come. The political tactic is to whine about everything and exaggerate all problems - it's classic rubbish.

    Not that Labour aren't doing the same with Keith Vaz spouting verbal dung about games, though at least in this day and age we have MPs like Vaizey (Tory) and (IIRC - the one that set up Voice 4 Gamers) Watson and that other Labour MP trying to support the games industry.

  • Fab4 #11 2 years ago

    How about treating the root cause IDS, parents who think its fucking fine to plonk their kids down in front of GTA so they can get their head showered.

  • Oli Verified Reviews Editor, Eurogamer.net #12 2 years ago

    Sailor Jerry's is revolting. What is wrong with you people.

    Ban this sick filth.

  • peasoup #13 2 years ago

    Wow...Just wow.... Silly me, I thought huge centralized government run by a bunch of loonies with only their own interests at heart and a series of botched social engineering experiments at our expense had more to do with the decline of Britain than a bunch of polygons moving around a screen.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #14 2 years ago

    How about they make a start by banning the sale of booze in fucking supermakets and limit it to off licenses and pubs where consumption is better monitored?

    No of course not, can't upset Tesco can we?

  • jack_klugman #15 2 years ago

    Burried under all the bluster is a legitimate point - there needs to be more education surrounding and stricter enforcement of age ratings for video games.

  • kendoji #16 2 years ago

    Grinding poverty, inequality and council estate chav factories have nothing to do with England's endemic violence.

    No, it's computer games!

  • actionfitz #17 2 years ago

    Oi!
    leave the sailor jerrys alone!
    way to go attract the youth vote btw. hmm lets ban alcohol and video games! (joking).

    But seriously its perfectly understandable that a politician would go after the scapegoats of alcohol and videogames...
    rather than work out policy's to tackle the social problems that contribute to violent delinquency.

    Of course its Booze and the evil 18-rated games that are to blame for the decline of society. Nothing at all to do with
    the pathetic excuse for parenting that passes as acceptable these days, high unemployment rates, poor educational standards etc.

    Because they would actually take time and effort to tackle, not like a quick fix, crowd pleasing election winner like 'ban this sick filth' and more tax on booze.

  • actionfitz #18 2 years ago

    @the_dudefather
    "nobody cares what it says on the label"
    Better ban all those delicious alchopops in the plastic bottles under the sink then
    ----
    and the monday morning, coffee out the nose giggle award goes to...
    cheers. now i have to find a cloth for my laptop :>
    /shakes fist. heh.

  • jellyhead #19 2 years ago

    Enforce the labels then.

  • estel #20 2 years ago

    @SpaceMidgit75 In my experience, supermarkets tend to be much better than off licenses at ensuring they only sell alcohol to over 18s.

  • Buenos_Estente #21 2 years ago

    Hmm i spent the weekend drinking Sailor Jerrys but playing Boom blox and Mario Kart -I am also not filled with murderous rage, therefore we can only assume he is right about Grand Theft Auto and not the alcohol. I am over 18 tho so probably safe from the game making me want to kill hookers. However I did have a desire to leave a trail of bananas behind my car today.

    Im unsure what to make of this, Iain duncan - please tell me what to do!

  • bad09 #22 2 years ago

    "We are driving children to lose their childhood," he told The Times. "Some videogames are incredibly violent, like Grand Theft Auto."

    Then...

    "They are meant to be 18 but nobody cares what it says on the label."


    AAAAARGHHHHH!!!!

    WHY do these people get important positions in our country? WHEN did we let the lunatics take over the Asylum? It's not just in this either, the older I grow the more I weep at our "politicians" "working" for "us".

    I dunno about old beardy Bin Laden but I do wonder sometimes if Guy Fawkes did have the right idea......

  • Blackthorned #23 2 years ago

    Nice one Iain, the country is up the economic creek, no longer producing any goods of great value and you're attacking the one industry that offers hope. One that would reap huge rewards in the future if it received the right support from idiot politicians like yourself.

  • StooMonster #24 2 years ago

    "nobody cares what it says on the label"

    Same is true of movies too, the same kind of parents that let their children play inappropriate games are likely to let them watch inappropriate DVDs too.

    But IDS is not having a go at movies is he? Wonder if that's because he is a consumer of movies but not of games?

  • kangarootoo #25 2 years ago

    If nobody cares what it says on the label, the solutiuon is perhaps to make care what it says on the label (not withstanding the whole debate about whether it matters what video games kids play).


    As for the alcohol angle, I find myself increasingly agreeing with him and others on this subject. The debate on the effect of video games on kids is wide and deep, but the debate on the effect of alcohol on kids (or adults) is rather less complex.

    Maybe its because I'm getting older, but I am increasing disappointed at alcohol use in the UK. Don't get me wrong, I drink and sometimes I drink a fair bit (and big hangovers at my age are like being pushed through a mangle for 2 days). But everytime I see yet another programme on TV about cops dealing the fallout on any highstreet after kicking out time, I just feel like driving a bulldozer up the road.

    My taxes are being thrown away on stopping a load of stupid piss heads from fighting each other. Stick drunk thugs on an island, let them fight, film it and take bets, and build a school with the proceeds I say.

    /soap box ends

  • bad09 #26 2 years ago

    The thing that gets me is nobody is saying a word at the sex, drugs, corruption, murder, backmail, rape, abuse, lying, cheating, family breakdowns every night on Britains braindrain soaps.

    Seriously my Mrs watches Eastenders and TBH I'd think twice about letting my child watch these depressing "family friendly" before watershed shows.

    Edited by 1 at 25/01/10 @ 09:59

  • Anthony_UK #27 2 years ago

    It's the parenting thats the issue, and the general idea from people who don't play games is that, well is only a game.....No matter what you say, to most people over the age of 40, videogames will always be a childrens toy.

  • jambo74 #28 2 years ago

    Duncan Smith - The Tories stole my childhood in the 80's with their harsh treatemet of my parents finances.

    Moden day - Kids just have to look at what people around your establishment get up to and think it is the norm.

    Get your own house in order first!

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #29 2 years ago

    @estel. I don't deny it (I was refering to pubs being better monitored, not off licenses) but the supermarkets sell booze at stupidly low prices.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #30 2 years ago

    Wow, Iain Duncan Smith. An opposition leader so shite he wasn't even afforded the chance to lose an election before being ousted.

  • PlugMonkey #31 2 years ago

    "Nice one Iain, the country is up the economic creek, no longer producing any goods of great value and you're attacking the one industry that offers hope. One that would reap huge rewards in the future if it received the right support from idiot politicians like yourself."

    + 1,000,000.

  • Mkwone #32 2 years ago

    His message is actually right though.

    Kids shouldn't be playing 18 games. We 've said that our selves when kids do something stupid and it's found he's spent 18 hours a day playing GTA.

    He's not saying violent games should be banned, just that the age restrictions should be enforced more.
    Edited by 2 at 25/01/10 @ 10:45

  • Whatsfor #33 2 years ago

    Everyone seems to be missing the point. He is right about the ratings system. He isn't complaining about the game as long as people over the certified age are playing it. Its scary how many parents/grandparents you see buying games like GTA for young children. I guess my parents were the same when I was playing the original GTA at about 12...

  • Ryze #34 2 years ago

    My comment from yesterday (Edge):

    I do understand his point, but singling out videogames is pathetic.
    In the past decade, children have been exposed to the following in the UK at least:

    Video pornography spreading via mobile phones / bluetooth
    Video pornography via flash video websites
    Crude, sexist, racist, offensive jokes via mobile text
    Violent and adult video spread via DVD-R
    Easy access to violence, foul language and sex via Sky and Cable TV
    - Sky now play 18 rated movies during the day - the default PIN is on the back of the viewing card.
    Cheap alcohol from the big supermarkets - cheaper than bottled water
    Class C Cannabis - seize and warn only for offenders leading to a huge increase in availability
    Plummeting cost of Cocaine leading to massive uptake and availbility

    etc...

    So - video games are the cause of children losing their innocence, eh? While the game needs an adult to enter a store and pay £20-40, then pass the game to their child.

    Sure.

  • Lukus #35 2 years ago

    I wonder which videogames all these dodgey MPs have been playing then. Eh! Amirite! Try the veal.

  • Murton #36 2 years ago

    "Alcohol is every bit as dangerous as illegal drugs," he said. "You can argue that it’s more dangerous than heroin because it’s easier to get." yet beer is legal, wonder if that has anything to do with the whopping great tax everyone pays on it, hmmmmm.

    The issue, as always with these things, isn't the media that kids are being exposed to but the fact that they're being exposed to mature content at all, the onus should be on the parents to actually raise their children and do it properly, not the creative industries to simply no longer make mature content. What is required from government is not new laws regarding creation and regulation of mature content but some common sense.

  • cam_guin #37 2 years ago

    @Ryze

    Don't forget GBL. and Mephedrome.

    Christy. Poor kids.

    /looks whistfully to the sky
    Edited by 1 at 25/01/10 @ 11:24

  • LR100 #38 2 years ago

    What's suddenly brought on this outburst?

  • Restart #39 2 years ago

    Sailor Jerry's & ginger ale is one of the greatest discoveries known to man. Anyone who says differently should be shot, alongside people who buy children adult rated games, & Tories.

  • potter73 #40 2 years ago

    Here we go again, yet another clueless politician having a pop at an industry he knows nothing about (or has simply read headlines in The Sun/Daily Mail)

    I remember a similar bout of hysteria when those fantasy role-play books came out in the 70's/80's . At the end of the day there is entertainment designed for ADULTS and entertainment designed for CHILDREN.

    It is quite clearly marked on the game what age group the game is designed for. At the end of the day, its down to parents to take more responsibility over what their kids play with, watch , listen to etc etc etc.

    Though Im guessing that a lot of parents who buy their kids video games, just assume that because its a game its going to be suitable for any age.

    Having said that Im pretty sure that the parents who let their 9 year old play games such as GTA are also the same sort of parents that would also let their 9 year old watch an 18 film

  • Bassassin #41 2 years ago

    Poor old IDS. Just as well he's never heard of the Internet.

  • sickpuppysoftware #42 2 years ago

    For years games have been ridiculed as "just for kids" and now they've suddenly become "just for adults"

    We can't win.

  • makeamazing #43 2 years ago

    No matter what you say, to most people over the age of 40, videogames will always be a childrens toy.

    Even though i am under 40, that is a pretty silly statement, as the years go by there will be more older games, me i am from the Spectrum era... and intend to carry on playing games as a source of entertainment, like going to the cinema or watching BR movies. To try and say anyone over 40 wont or doesnt like games is being just as out of touch as IDS.

    There will always be people who consider games as toys, this will change as more and more money is made from them, the movie industry was once considered a fad, in time (and it may take awhile), games will be just as important as movies, we just need to stop idiot MPs and idiot press from jumping on the bandwagon.

  • Bravestinsane #44 2 years ago

    bollocks if it's wasting children's childhood, they are not stupid people do what they enjoy doing playing games is one of those things.

    Anyway kids shouldn't be playing Grand Theft Auto, so your to fucking blame for them getting their hands on them perhaps if mps done their job right then they wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

  • Bluetooth #45 2 years ago

    He has a point. But who lets those teenies play adult games like GTA? Their stupid parents, that's who.

  • mr_pink #46 2 years ago

    Many commenters here have hit the nail on the head, parents shouldn't let their kids play games like these. MW2 and GTA in particular are based in 'reality', sure they are melodramatic but it's this parallel to 'real life' events that makes them especially affecting. As much as I dislike the Tories, IDS has made a fair point even if he is using it to further his political aims. The only practical solution to this is to educate parents about the psychological effects they are having on their children, figuring out the best way to do this is the really tricky part.

  • bonker #47 2 years ago

    "Seems to me it's he who can't tell fantasy from reality. Checked your foreign affairs lately? Yeah, you're engaged in two wars, killing thousand of incidentally real people. But I guess the prime minister coming on TV proclaiming the virtue of killing people has no effect on the kids, right?"

    Spot on mate ...

  • batsy99 #48 2 years ago

    That's a new one. M.Ps just can't get a grasp of anything, unless it's on their expenses list.

  • CosmicGypsy #49 2 years ago

    Anyone making these sorts of statements should be forced to read the Byron review (you know, the report which stated that games are a benefit to society rather than a detrement to it). If you can't read, stop looking at these fancy scribblings on your screen and watch the Penn & teller show on violent video games from the latest series of their show "Bullshit". Most of the people on EG probaby don't need to watch a 30 minute TV show or read a government report to know that most of the claims made by the likes of IDS are utter bullshit though.

  • CosmicGypsy #50 2 years ago

    I think I might go on some Daily Mail forums now and argue that immigration is ruining our country and that EVERYTHING causes cancer

  • arty #51 2 years ago

    He should be championing this British made title, since let's face it, it is one of the greatest video games ever made.


  • MinerWilly #52 2 years ago

    Typical Conservative views . You think things are bad now , you dont know how lucky we are . Cameron sadly is going to get in , I pray they dont do to Scotland and Northern England what they did in the Eighties.

  • Xensor #53 2 years ago

    Iain Duncan Smith, also know as IDS or Irritable Duncan Syndrome. Just another out-of-touch moron.

  • louyfitz #54 2 years ago

    So going to school, having your own british and/or english traditions ignored while other peoples customs are rammed down your throat, then going to college and being given a half arsed education by tutors who are only there because they failed in the real industry of their choice. then of course growing up being lied to by governments so that we kill for oil, watching the news realising that while you yourself are still growing up, people a year younger are being blown up because of the war for oil. All those things are better for your childhood than playing GTA and having a spliff? I dont think so, and I'm pretty sure i'm not the only one who has done both of those for the majority of teenage life. I dont kill people, I have not split personality, I'm just a young I.T. technician getting on with life the best i can.


    When fun is outlawed, only outlaws have fun.