PEGI people warn over planned changes to UK classification

By Patrick Garratt

The Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE) isn’t happy over reported plans to change UK games classifications, saying that bringing in a cinema-style system to handle regulation would be a “step backwards”.

“I would resent the idea of equating games to movies,” said ISFE director general Patrice Chazerand. “It’s a step backwards. If we are to see a move to movie-like classification, I would see it as a mistake. But I cannot speak for the UK public – or the government. If your Government goes for a national solution over a pan-European one, I would take it as a blow to PEGI and not a reflection of the industry being global.”

The notion of a new classification system being brought into the UK was widely reported two weeks ago, when the UK’s national press leaked information supposedly contained within the Byron Report, a government-commissioned paper on the nature of violent games and suggested measures to regulate them.

The report, compiled by ex-TV psychiatrist Tanya Byron, is to be delivered next month.

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