Violent games on the OLPC Activities page

[Tom Hannen]

I disagree with the idea of censoring games based on violence.  I
think that a warning at the top of any page should be sufficient.

Games are just another form of creativity...  Should we also remove
any links to violence in books and artwork, within Wikibrowse for
example?

Tom

On Jan 17, 2008 3:46 PM, Bryan Berry <bryan.berry at gmail.com> wrote:
> I feel very strongly that violent games should not be associated with
> OLPC. Albert Cahalan points out that games like Doom can teach geometry
> and other skills. There are ways to teach those skills w/out involving
> violence. I work in Nepal, a country recovering from an 11-year civil
> war. Exposure to more violence, real or virtual, is the last thing most
> Nepali communities want.
>
> I removed the Doom activity from the Activities page yesterday and put a
> note on the page asking people not to post violent activities to the
> page.  Doom was added back shortly thereafter and my note was removed.
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities
>
> People can host such games on their own sites but they should not be
> hosted by OLPC.
>
> We can debate forever whether violent games cause violence. The fact is
> many those people (esp. outside the US) whose support we need for OLPC,
> think that violent games are damaging to kids. We need to respect that
> sentiment.
>
> Is there an existing wiki policy regarding violent activities? If there
> isn't, there should be.
>
>
> --
> Bryan W. Berry
> OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org
>
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