Ron Jeremy says violent video games 'worse' than porn

[Bald Bouncer]

Violent video games have "a much bigger negative influence on kids" than pornography, a leading porn star has claimed.

He said parents should be more worried about the harmful effects of such games.
Mr Jeremy's comments were made at a session called the Great Porn Debate during the Consumer Electronics Show, CES, in Las Vegas.
His comments angered gamers, who accused him of "ignorance".
Mr Jeremy's appearance at CES in Las Vegas caused some raised eyebrows.
He took time away from the Adult Entertainment Expo, which takes place in Las Vegas at the same time as the annual tech fest, to speak out on behalf of his profession and promote some practical tools.
"Studies have found that violent video games are a much bigger negative influence on kids," Mr Jeremy said.
'Very disappointing'
The remark has caused quite a stir in the games world.
"It's rather hypocritical behaviour and it doesn't speak up for pornography's merits by merely saying "something else is worse, don't look at us.
"Very disappointing behaviour from a man who should know better," said Jim Sterling of gaming news blog Destructoid.com.

The pornography industry has a reputation for being rather technologically advanced


Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter



Read Maggie's thoughts in full


Andy Chalk at video gaming site escapistmagazine.com said Mr Jeremy's remarks cannot be completely ignored.
"While I do think he's (Mr Jeremy) working from a platform of ignorance, I'm not quite as certain that the sentiment is entirely wrong.

"I wouldn't want my kids (the hypothetical ones, that is) playing Modern Warfare 2 or becoming overly familiar with Ron's body of work, but is it really reasonable to say that one is significantly worse than the other?" asked Mr Chalk.
Mr Jeremy also urged parents to play their part in preventing children from accessing adult websites.
He said the industry already does all it can to protect youngsters.

"Parents can block this stuff and need to stop blaming porn for a bad case of parenting," Mr Jeremy told BBC News.
"Parents should watch what their kids are doing online and take some responsibility. Don't blame us. We have disclaimers, age notifications and software blockers. We are doing our bit," said Mr Jeremy.

That view was backed by a critic of the $10bn (£6.2bn) adult entertainment sector.
"Parents are not talking about this with their kids enough," said Craig Gross, who is a former pastor and has set up a website to help people addicted to pornography.

"We have to have these conversations because for the most part, kids are smarter than their parents when it comes to technology. Parents need to do more parenting and be more proactive on these issues," added Mr Gross.
"Safer online"
Mr Jeremy was busy promoting the practical tools designed to prevent children from accessing pornography.



Mr Jeremy in black t-shirt was a bit hit with techies at CES


"Because we make porn, we are the bad guys. We don't want kids to watch porn but yes we recognise that it happens. We are not in favour of that," said Mr Jeremy who has appeared in over 2000 films.
Now the man voted America's top porn actor by the Adult Video Network, has put his weight and influence behind a number of software blocking tools.

These include InternetSafety.com's Safe Eyes family internet management software which will automatically block access to online pornographic content.

"We're not just all about restrictions and rules. We want the family to talk about being safer online," said Aaron Kenny, the chief technology officer for InternetSafety.com.

Coming to the aid of the porn industry is an unlikely figure in the shape of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection, ASCAP, a non-profit group that works to enforce anti-child pornography laws.

"The porn industry has gotten a bad rap," Joan Irvine, the chief executive officer of ASCAP told the BBC.
"They are doing so much in order to develop technology or using our systems because they don't want kids out there watching porn, or being in it.

They recognise that it isn't good for business and would lead to more scrutiny so they police themselves well," added Ms Irvine.

Source - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8453043.stm

[Bald Bouncer]

On the face of it and coming from Ron Jeremy you could easily dismiss this but it has raised some interesting points.
I know if you play Modern Warfare 2 (as an example) online you hear a mass of children playing and are clearly not old enough due to their voices have not yet broken yet in reality they are doing nothing to enforce the restrictions.

We would stop or do our best to stop/discourage our children from drinking under age, smoking, watching pornography etc but many parents seem to think it fine to allow young children to play these games so is this:
bad parenting?
lack of awareness?
calculated judgement of the child/s maturity?
a counter reaction to something parents consider over protective and not needed?
or some other reason?

[BBK]

As a parent I think the long term effects of seeing pornography are far less than effectively being involved in commiting violence. I think the problem is we, as adults, find it difficult to fully guage the effect these games have on kids. I was playing Uncharted 2 the other day. To an adult, not a violent game at all. My stepdaughter happened to be watching me play, and her mother asked her if she realised this wasnt real. She didn't. Needless to say the game got switched off pretty quickly. Kids don't realise, they ARE becoming more desensitised to violence, and it is down to ignorance and lack of parenting skills. I wont let my kids watch 18 rated films (my eldest is 10). Id let her watch a 12, and possibly a 15 depending on the film, but she's not old enough to comprehend an adult film (by adult I mean a movie with adult themes, not porn). Do we truly know how kids are interpreting the scenes they see in movies? No, we don't.

And yes, I believe games are worse. I'm a gamer, and I actively encourage all the kids to play games. But the games they are playing are right for their age. Games are immersive, far more than movies, and if you put a 10 year old kid into MW2 you are taking a big risk as far as I'm concerned.

However, lets not dismiss porn as safe. I do slightly worry about how far kids may end up with the proliferation of free porn on the internet. I mean we all sat there and laughed (or puked!) at 2 Girls 1 Cup, but I bet there were kids watching this. To most of us it was a bit of shocking humour, but to a kid? Who knows! Didn't we have a case on here a couple of years back where a member discovered some friends kids were looking at rape porn? To me, every bit as dangerous as letting a kid play MW2.

The only solution is to pay attention to what your kids are doing. Sure, you can't always "protect" them, and pushing boundaries is part of growing up, kids to need to experiment, but I honestly think some parents dont give a shit at all about what their kids are doing within their own home, and that SHOULD be a concern.

[Zippeyrude]

I think he upset the gamers as realistically, most (not all granted but most) of the males that attend gaming exhibitions/shows/conferences/etc probably spend waaaay too much time in the virtual work and have made more contact with virtual females than real females.

Therefore the reaction against Ron Jeremy (who has fucked thousands of women) from a bunch of lonely introverted gamers (who wank regularly) is to be expected.

[Over Carl]

Are violent games worse than violent porn?

[BBK]

Are violent games worse than violent porn?

I don't think so, but generally in porn you're just looking (well .......) whereas with violent games you are actually DOING the violence. That for me is the difference, and lets be honest, violent games are accepted by mainstream society, violent porn isn't.

[Twincharge]

I have to agree with points made here, times are changing. There was a time when I thought the likes of Capcoms Commando are harmless. However more reaslistic and immersive games like MW2 are worrying when played by youngsters.

Now we have Madworld on the Wii, where you actually physically stab at the victim.

[flumperino]

I don't think so, but generally in porn you're just looking (well .......) whereas with violent games you are actually DOING the violence.

hmmm, interesting. I wonder if project natal will spawn any porn oriented games

[petey85]

Games have age certificates like films, but so many parents aren't at all bothered about games, but wouldn't let their kids watch an 18...sometimes I just wish parents weren't always after someone or something to blame.

Jeremy is a dick (literally in a lot of ways) but he should've just kept his gob shut - BBK is right on the money imo.

[BBK]

I dont think the game age certificates are legally binding though, I think they are purely for guidance. And even if they were "legal", parents would still buy them, because I think most parents have no idea how immersive and realistic these games can be. Most of us here on DF are far more technically savvy than your average person, and indeed a hell of a lot of us play games, so we see first hand what is going on. Ignorance is no excuse, but its the reality.

[Absurd]

I dont think the game age certificates are legally binding though, I think they are purely for guidance.

The PEGI cert is mainly for information purposes only, but anything with a BBFC cert is legally binding in just the same way as a movie, but it doesn't stop the average parent from handing over the notes for a copy of MW2 for their 12 year old. Parents need educating, as do people in the media. As others have said on this topic, it's incredibly naive to decry one form of exploitative entertainment over another but as long as you've got ignorance you'll get headlines.

[C3Grimmy]

funny not 1 mention of Manhunt