How much does it cost for TV psychologist to tell us there’s basically nothing wrong with games or the way we rate them? £275,000

UK Minister of State for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism Margaret Hodge has revealed how much the Byron Review cost the British Government - £275,000.

“The review has just ended and while accounting procedures are still to be completed, we estimate that a total of around £275,000 has been spent on the review, not including salaries and expenses of the civil servants on the Review’s secretariat,” Hodge wrote in response to the to an inquiry from parliament.

Byron’s report did actually seem to do a good job of tackling what it set out to do – take a balanced view of the internet and video games and how they affect our children. Needless to say, there wasn’t anything to seriously suggest that exposure to violent media really had much affect on children anyway. No one in the games industry should have much to whinge about though.

But wait a minute. *Eyes tax return form on desk next to me*. Seriously WTF?!? £275,000 just so that a TV psychologist could spell out in writing that parents should look after their kids properly and not let media induced fears about future technology keep them holed up in an internet / console free lab environment where the only conceivable corrupting influence is a brightly coloured brick? Jesus.

The Byron Review (via GamePolitics)

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