UK Government Supports Modern Warfare 2 Release News

At a parliamentary question session for the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Keith Vaz Labour MP for Leicester East raised his concerns surrounding the impending launch of Activision-Blizzard's Modern Warfare 2.

"Are you aware that at midnight tonight a new and violent video game called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is to be released?" Vaz asked the house, having earlier expressed concerns in The Daily Mail.  

"Content suitable for adults should be labelled as such and sold as such that it should be an offence to sell this content to children.  That's the case under current law, it will be the case under the law when it changes with the Digital Economy bill," Sion Simon, Minister for Creative Industries, told the house.  

"The game that the young gentleman refers to is a certificate 18 game, it should not be sold to children and it's the government's job to make sure that adults, clearly labelled, can get what adults should be able to and that children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content."

Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich East, used Vaz's question to demand it shows support to the UK video games industry and not to propagate moral panic.

"I've seen the content in this video game, it is unpleasant though no worse then in any films or books," Watson said.  "It carries a content warning, it is an 18+ game and carries a BBFC 18+ rating as well."  

"Does the minister agree that it would be better for members of this house to support the many thousands of game designers and coders and the many millions of game users, rather than collaborate with The Daily Mail to create moral panic over the use of video games?"

"I was in Dundee last week visiting the video games industry," Simon replied.  "It is a very important industry in which we have a national competitive advantage in this country, which it's important that all members of this house and the government continue to support."