It is one of those headlines that makes you stop and read again, is it not? After all, surely nobody is really suggesting that if you partake in an act of virtual violence within the digital realm of a video game that you should pay a very real world penalty and spend time in prison.
Well, actually, politicians in the Bavarian and Lower Saxony state governments within Germany are not only suggesting exactly that, but have drafted a new proposed law to cover the offence of, and I kid ye not, “cruel violence on humans or human looking characters’ within a video game.
Whether you are ‘promoting’ or ‘enacting’ such violence matters not, both players and programmers alike are covered by this draft, or should that be daft, proposal which could see the a punishment of as much as 12 months in jail for those found guilty.