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GTA IV Offers Meth Recipe?

By Chris Bennett, Tudor Carsten, Michael R. Coburn, Sarah Dale-Harris, Pablo Guzman, Danielle (Dani) Lemon, Chris Metcalfe and David Spratley

Rockstar and its Grand Theft Auto franchise are no strangers to controversy (hot coffee, anyone?), but according to a recent report in the Times, the British Board of Film Classification investigated reports that a recipe for crystal meth was part of the game play in GTA IV. As it turns out, the recipe, which was available through the game's mock "Craigslist" site, was "inaccurate" and stayed in the game.

But perhaps more interesting than Rockstar's relentless pursuit of subversive content was the gist of the Times' story itself, which was that Britain has abandoned its attempt to have video games classified by the BBFC (which also rates films), and will allow the Video Standards Council to rate games using the PEGI system. Although critics claim that the PEGI system is industry-controlled and less robust than the BBFC ratings, others insist that the PEGI system has been strengthened and will provide needed consistency with the rest of Europe when it comes to rating video games. Surprisingly, even the author of the Byron Report, Dr. Tanya Byron, seems to have come around to the PEGI system, despite recommending in her comprehensive report that the BBFC should handle the job.

Times article is available here.

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Full post as published by Video Game Law Blog on July 06, 2009 (boomark / email).