It's almost like clockwork, right? It seems like every couple of months a naive politician will link terrible and even violent real-world behaviour to video games, and yet again we find ourselves at that point. A senior Australian government minister went on TV and drew an ill-informed parallel between the toxic treatment of women and Grand Theft Auto and TikTok.
The original report from Kotaku AU says that Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and the Federal Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles took to Channel 9's Today Show to discuss the current national focus on the treatment of women. This follows a series of scandals within Australia's government which widely centre on the appalling treatment of women, with accusations ranging from the performing of sexual acts on a female MP's desk, and the dismissive treatment of rape allegations.
During the conversation about the treatment of women, Dutton first uses his personal relationship to the issue as an anecdote. He talks about some of the terrible stories he hears about young people, and as a father of a 19-year-old daughter and teenage boys, it worries him. "And it's not uncommon: young girls, hand up a skirt, on a breast etc, it's completely unacceptable behaviour," he says. "For teenage boys, it's incumbent on parents first and foremost, to make sure that we are teaching them the right values, the respect they need to have towards women." That's all fair enough. But then the conversation takes a turn to blame Grand Theft Auto and TikTok.
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Dutton goes on to imply that seeing illegal, violent or questionable behaviour on social media and in other mediums like video games negatively influences young people. The minister says: "I think what we should demand is the same laws that apply in real life, apply online." He expands to say that unfiltered content on TikTok affects the minds of "young, impressionable boys and girls". It should be noted that TikTok is well known for taking down content at the drop of a hat, if the company deems it inappropriate.
The Home Affairs Minister goes on to blame Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series. "If you're playing Grand Theft Auto, as a 13-year-old boy, and lots of teenage boys will do, you can go - in that game, not just, you know, drive cars recklessly, you can go for a lap dance, you can go and shoot police. And so we need to have a broader conversation about the influences on those young boys, both in a family setting and a societal setting, and particularly online."
Another MP took this transcript and commented that he thought that this change in conversation was just a distraction. Tim Watts, who's a Labor Member and Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications and Cybersecurity, likely knows that this tech isn't to blame for these wider societal issues. It's an easy place to turn to when all some people hear about games is the violence that appears in them; and while they wouldn't consider films or TV or music as contributing to wider violence, the active participation element of games changes their perceptions.
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It wasn't long ago that we saw a similar story coming out of America. A US politician decided to turn to blame violent video games as an influence on the carjacking rates of Chicago and wider Illinois. Despite there being studies upon studies showing that playing violent games does not increase your chances of being violent in real life, that doesn't stop politicians from using games as a scapegoat for wider issues.
Featured Image Credit: Rockstar GamesTopics: News, Grand Theft Auto, tiktok
