Interviews// Tanya Byron, Head Of The Government's Gaming Review

SPOnG: Yeah, but do you really think that current parental controls on consoles are an effective way of restricting kid’s access to something? Surely most children are more tech-savvy than their parents when it comes to knowing the ins and outs of games consoles?

Tanya Byron: I think it’s one way. And I also agree with you that children, if they want to, might find a way around it. I mean, that’s part of being a kid isn’t it? You know, the higher you build a wall, a lot of kids will want to climb it really, won’t they? But this review is about looking at all those different options and all those opportunities.

Your readers are older and experienced gamers, many of whom are feeling probably concerned and possibly a bit cynical about this kind of review. But I want them to understand that this is about kids, and helping kids enjoy gaming and growing into being sensible gamers. If your readers can engage with me and tell me about their own experiences that would be invaluable. I think the gaming community has a lot to tell me and to contribute to making this review the success I hope it will be. And I hope that many of your community will want to do this.


SPOnG: You made quite an important point in your talk earlier, talking about tabloid ‘scaremongering’ relating to games and game culture. Certainly amongst our readers there is this perception that The Daily Mail brigade are out to demonise violent games or adult-themed games. There are a lot of sensationalist tabloid stories, just not based in any kind of fact, running down violent games. One of the concerns we have is that this review is part and parcel of that more general misunderstanding of games. Does that make sense?

Tanya Byron: Yes, it does make sense. And I actually think this review is about addressing that misunderstanding. I’ve actually met some of the big stakeholders in the videogames industry, the main designers, publishers and retailers across the industry. I now have a really good relationship with all these people across the industry who are all very keen to work closely with me to see the best recommendations come out of this review. The industry instinctively knows that because of this misunderstanding that exists, that something needs to be done to address that.

And I think what needs to be done is a sensible, well-thought-out review of the evidence, of the available literature, of the experience of gamers, experience of consumers, experience of industry, to try for once to bring it all together in a way in which we can think about it rationally and sensibly. Rather than cracking off all these hysterical, emotional, rather knee-jerk responses. I mean, where does that get us? That gets us nowhere. It just makes the argument more polarised.

Meanwhile you have kids in the middle who are still playing games which are possibly classified in a way that’s a bit confusing and we need to think about playing games in a way in which parents aren’t currently monitoring well because they don’t understand them and all those other points you’ve already mentioned.


SPOnG: Talking about words such as ‘violence’ and ‘gamers’ – these are catch-all terms. Often when we use these words we don’t really think about what they mean, what it is we are actually talking about. There’s clearly lots of different types of violence in games for various reasons…

Tanya Byron: And also one person’s violence might not be another person’s violence, it’s also very subjective…