News

American VP Joe Biden Says A “Violent Media Tax” Is Legally Possible

Manhunt is among the most notoriously famous “violent” video games of our time. Yet at the core of the word “violent” is a normative judgement that has to be made. What is violent? What would constitute “violent media”? How would you determine acceptable violence? Or would any form of violence denote violent media?

These are just some of the questions we are faced with after the United States Vice President Joe Biden stated that the U.S Government can tax violent media, there is no legal reason why it couldn’t. A Violent Media Tax would most likely be used to discriminate strongly against video games, while TV shows, DVDs music (rap music would no doubt have a hard time escaping) and other forms of media would probably escape. Christian Conservative Americans, who make up a significant proportion of America political lobbying and power, have a particular hatred of “violent” video games and using this tax would be a great way to curb the consumption of them.

It is reported that funds raised by the tax would be used to help victims of gun related violence. Although, from my European perspective, making firearms illegal is surely a  better way to curb gun related violence than to tax video games. In addition, violence isn’t “just about guns”. Relentlessly bashing video game makers who make “violent games” is surely not going to solve anything. The root causes of violence often have very little to do with video games and more to do with socio-economic factors such as prevalence of poverty and quality of childhood parenting.

It also remains to be seen if this violent media tag will be selective. You can most definitely expect Grand Theft Auto V and Manhunt to be taxed for violent media, but America’s Army 3, Delta Force Black Hawk Down and even Battlefield 3 – probably not as these glorify American military interventions. This then comes back to my point at the beginning, who makes the judgement on what is violent media?

No violent media tax is yet present in the form of legislation but we can probably expect to see it emerge soon. Whether or not it has support in the U.S congress is something we will have to wait and see about.

What are your thoughts on this highly controversial topic? I also apologise in advance if you didn’t like any of my opinions, but they are exactly that – opinions, so please feel free to share yours too.

Source

Ryan Martin

Disqus Comments Loading...

Recent Posts

Plaion Launches Retro ZX Spectrum Computer

Plaion, a leading video game publisher, and Retro Games Ltd., a specialist in reimagined classic…

2 days ago

NVIDIA Warns of GeForce RTX 40 Graphics Card Shortages in November and December

During the latest earnings call, NVIDIA CFO Colette Kress warned of a potential GPU supply…

3 days ago

GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070 Reportedly Coming in Q1 2025

Chinese sources say the GeForce RTX 5090, RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070…

3 days ago

GTA 6 Already Winning Awards Before Its Launch

GTA 6 doesn’t have an official release date yet, but it has already earned a…

3 days ago

DJI Osmo Mobile 6, 3-Axis Phone Gimbal

Stay on Point with ActiveTrack 6.0 - With upgraded tracking tech, OM 6 sticks to…

3 days ago

Drayton Wiser Smart Radiator Thermostat TRV

Pack includes three Wiser Radiator Thermostats. These smart radiator thermostats are only designed to work…

3 days ago