VSC restructures ahead of videogame responsibilities
Forms Expert Advisory Panel to assist in rating games
The Video Standards Council has announced that it has restructured in anticipation of taking on the sole responsibility of rating videogames in the UK.
The organisation has formed a new Expert Advisory Panel, consisting of chartered pshycologist and "expert in media violence" Guy Cumberbatch, media law specialist and author Geoffrey Robertson QC and Dr Tanya Byron, responsible for the government's 2008 report on videogames and the internet.
The VSC has also appointed Tony Lake QPM, former chief constable of Lincolnshire Police, Mary MacLeod, recently retired director of the Family and Parenting Institute, and Chris Atkinson of the NSPCC as board members.
"The newly established VSC Expert Advisory Panel will play a key role," commented Baroness Shephard, chair of the VSC. "The VSC will have the ability to effectively 'ban' a videogame from supply in the UK if it infringes the limits set out in the law. Any such decision will not be taken lightly and will involve a number of legal, clinical and psychological issues.
"The VSC will now be able to call upon some of the most eminent experts in these fields and ensure that all relevant factors are properly taken into account before any decision is reached."
The VSC will act independently of the games industry and rate games using the PEGI system when it officially comes into force.