Stephen King criticizes Mass. anti-video game bill

(Peter Kramer/AP)

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Stephen King, the master of horror novels, has weighed in against a proposal pending in the Massachusetts Legislature to ban violent video games.

King, in a column appearing in the April 11 issue of Entertainment Weekly titled "Videogame Lunacy," said it's up to parents to monitor their kids.

"Parents need to have the guts to forbid material they find objectionable ... and then explain why it's being forbidden," he said. "They also need to monitor their children's lives in the pop culture -- which means a lot more than seeing what games they're renting down the street."

He noted comments by Rep. Christine Canavan, D-Brockton, one of the bill's co-sponsors, that she didn't want a constant barrage of violence on young minds.

"It's a good point ... except that it seems to me that the games only reflect a violence that already exists in society," wrote King, who is the magazine's pop culture columnist.

"Who am I to argue with the king of horror?" said Canavan. "But seriously, I still feel that when someone with a developing mind and a developing sense of self is barraged with a particular thing, such as violence, that it would rub off the wrong way."

Larry Mayes, Menino's chief of human services for Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who first advanced the proposal, said the Menino administration shared "Mr. King's desire to protect creative expression, as we do share his desire for good parenting. We also do share, we think, his desire to protect minors."

Mayes said some parents, despite their best efforts, have been overtaken by a culture of media oversaturation and "outmaneuvered by very slick violent video game makers and their lobbyists who put a buck first rather than kids."

"Research shows," Mayes said, "that violent video games and violent media, in general, increase aggressive behavior in children. And we've got a responsibility here."

The proposal would make it illegal to disseminate material to minors that depicts violence that is "patently offensive."

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