Britain's top authority on knife crimes is telling his boss — Prime Minister Gordon Brown — to tax violent video games just after Pennsylvania legislators considered the same thing.
It's not clear that there is a connection between violent video games and knife crimes in Britain, but knife crime adviser Richard Taylor says that young people in his country can buy violent video games too easily and too cheaply.
According to the Telegraph, Taylor told the Home Affairs Committee: "I have young people who I mentor and I see them go up and buy the games and it saddens me that they are being able to have such a negative impact."
Taylor goes on to say that rap music is also a problem.
"It is creating more of a problem because of the language that is used. It is language that, as a father, I would not allow my children to hear.
"To me, there is a lot of negativity that comes out of this music, especially that which is coming from America."
Ah, yes. Blame America — the guys who started the violent video game tax trend when a Children and Youth Committee of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives heard arguments for slapping a 5% tax on violent video games last week.
It's not clear that a tax would fly on this side of the pond. State judiciaries are really protective of constitutional rights to make, publish and sell pretty much anything that isn't porn or marijuana (and even that's a gray area in California). But in Britain? Who knows.
Tax violent video games to beat knife crime, says Damilola Taylor's father [Telegraph via GamePolitics]