Pope Benedict XVI has called violent or sexually explicit games a perversion and repulsive:

The comments came during the annual papal message for World Communications Day, themed on the subject, " Children and the Media: A Challenge for Education." Paying particular attention to video games, the pope discussed the media' s effect on children.

" Any trend to produce programs and products - including animated films and video games - which in the name of entertainment exalt violence and portray antisocial behaviour or the trivialisation of human sexuality is a perversion, all the more repulsive when these programs are directed at children and adolescents," the pope said.

His comments also addressed how the media can support a child' s education so long as it " promotes fundamental human dignity, the true value of marriage and family life, and the positive achievements and goals of humanity."

He also called upon industry leaders to " safeguard the common good, to uphold the truth, to protect individual human dignity, and promote respect for the needs of the family."

Source: Pro-G

Ah who listens to the head of the Cathiolic church anyway, they are so far out of tune with the modern world they may as well go start the crusades again. Why the hell is everyone jumping on this " Gaming is evil" bandwagon, personally I have played computer games for almost 30 years, I have never killed anyone (well not without being given permission to do so first.) Nor have I ever stolen a car or been involved with depraved sexual acts(Well the sheep were asking for it.) I have played all genres of games, I have watched all genres of films, I still have no want to go an commit acts of a deviant nature. The people who do commit these heinous acts are already disturbed or suffer from a mental illness and that is down to society as a whole, so someone tell the big white suited man to have a coke and a smile and to shut the F*&K up.

By the way should this have not been added to the htread about the Krauts trying to censor gaming...Just a thought.

Indeed, it' s a bit of a trend. And those complaining about games usually have no clue what they' re talking about. Like the people from Rockstar said about Bully : their game got a mature rating while at the same time teen movies about high school or whatever showed more disturbing bullying. One thing that also puzzles me is this 18+ rating in Europe. I mean, many games get these kind of ratings while a movie with similar content could maybe get 15+ or 13+ in some cases. Many games even get 18+ for hinting at sexual themes. Kind of weird that 18+ for movies is reserved for explicit sexual content then. The guy from Rockstar also questioned this double morale.

If I remember correctly, isn' t American Pie supposed to be a 15+ movie? That features sexual comedy by the bucket-loads. All it needs now is those ridiculously big puddles of red paint that Rockstar try to pass of as blood and it probably will become an 18, eh?

In this day and age, there is no longer an individuals right to choose, it is all done for us, by the so-called members of various parliments who act for the people, this is boolocks they act for their own interests and their own agendas, the certification systems has been and will always be flawed, mainly because of the idea of one cultures idea of what is too violent is not another' s. let' s put this into some context, many years ago there was a film " Crocodile Dundee" in the UKL it was a 12 due to some of the language and scenes that were for a " Mature audience." In the States due to a reference of " Stone the Crows!" The certification was pushed to what would be classed as a 15 these days, all this due to a term that the american censors thought was violent to birds. This idea of being politically correct is being pushed to the very extreme' s and this Jackass is trying to jump on the bandwagon, maybe he should be more worried about the hypocrosy of religion and try and sort that out.

If I remember correctly, isn' t American Pie supposed to be a 15+ movie?

Wow, 15+. America is 17+ since it is R. :P

I wouldn' t listen to the Pope...the catholic church is really the only religion aside from Scientology that works more as a business rather than an actual community. This is media for them, making fun of the pope is advertisement for them. In the end it benefits only them :(. Also, when does the bandwagon come around again? Forgot to catch it in 2005.