The Daily Mail has run a heavily-skewed article about an 11 year-old kid, Jack Tinn, who had an epileptic seizure while playing Resident Evil 4 on PS2. In summary, the parents said (and I paraphrase here) “We didn’t know it could cause epilepsy. If there is a warning, it’s too hard to find”.

In classic sensationalist tabloid style, the Daily Mail has chosen to interweave the actual facts on the case with entirely unrelated musings and condemnation on kids playing violent videogames. I’m posting to clear up some common misconceptions, as displayed in the original article’s comments.

1. A BBFC 15-rated game is illegal for an under-15 year old to buy. It is not illegal for them to play it. Parents are still entitled to their own discretion when it comes to their children. The UK isn’t that much of a nanny state yet. See AskAboutGames.com for more info on ratings.
2. The quote in the image is the Daily Mail’s insidious manufactured association between “dangers of such games” and “violent computer games”. These parents just want bigger epilepsy warnings. They have no apparent issue with videogame violence being a danger.
3. The violence in scenes with “exploding heads and gory battle scenes including what is described as ‘an escape from a village filled with Texas Chainsaw Massacre extras’ ” was entirely incidental to Jack Tinn’s epileptic fit. Photosensitive epilepsy is triggered by:

“certain frequencies of flashing or flickering lights, or by certain geometric shapes or patterns”

as stated on the National Society for Epilepsy’s website.

I thought pretty much every game had a standard epilepsy warning in the manual, usually on one of the first couple of pages that everyone ignores. Every game I have includes it and Nintendo DS games even come with a health and safety booklet in addition to the user manual. Is Resi Evil 4 any different?

Update: Nope, Resident Evil 4’s manual comes with the same standard epilepsy warning inside the cover, just like any other game. Silly people…

Links:

The National Society for Epilepsy
Ask About Games
BBFC

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