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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
April 2001 |
Teen's fight against violent video games builds steam
A 13-year-old United Methodist from North Bend, Ore., is getting national attention for her campaign to prevent children from being exposed to violent video games.
Danielle Shimotakahara is surprised at the impact of her campaign, the "Cool-No-Violence Peace Project."
"I never thought it would go this far," she says. "I was only trying to educate and convince the businesses around here to voluntarily remove or place their violent games in another area of their business away from little kids."
Shimotakahara is featured in the March Reader's Digest as an "everyday hero" and is in American Girl magazine's April edition. She also has been spotlighted on local television newscasts as well as Nickelodeon.
She is among a group of 10 teen activists who will meet privately with the Dalai Lama when he visits Oregon in May for the Youth Peace Summit.
The "Cool-No-Violence Peace Project" led to her appearance before a U.S. Senate committee, presentations to civic and community groups, and appearances at schools and churches.
On Feb. 19, before the Oregon Senate Committee on Business, Labor and Economic Development, she argued in favor of state Senate Bill 59. The bill would require public video-game owners to ensure that children younger than 18 do not play games depicting people being shot, or blood, gore, mutilation or the dismemberment of human bodies.
Following the Columbine killings
Shimotakahara, a member of North Bend UMC, launched her campaign at the 1999 Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference gathering. Her idea was a reaction to the shootings that year at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., where two boys killed 13 people and wounded many others.
Shimotakahara drafted an action request that easily won the approval of annual conference members. Two resolutions were passed, including one that went to the United Methodist Church's General Conference in 2000 and ended up in the denomination's Book of Resolutions ("Violent Coin-Operated Video Game Machines," p. 442)
She believes that games with yellow stickers should be for kids 13 and up, and games with red stickers should be for people 17 and older. Often, the rating stickers are not on the machines, she says. "The Parental Advisory System poster is not displayed either so parents don't know what any of this means and I think they need to know."
"I'm surprised at the number of people who never knew these types of machines were out there, and I'm impressed by the number of people, including lots of kids, who agree with me once they learn about these machines," she says.
Games and 'real life'
"My pastor, Pam Meese, told me that games are supposed to prepare kids for real life situations," Shimotakahara says. "So what does a game that rips bodies to pieces and explodes body parts and splatters blood on the screen teach kids to prepare for in real life?"
Though she has persuaded a number of arcade and restaurant owners in her local area to eliminate violent video games, Shimotakahara is up against other business owners, video players, her own classmates and the American Civil Liberties Union, all of whom oppose the Oregon bill.
The Oregonian also is against it. In an editorial, the newspaper says the connection between violent video games and real-life violence is unproven. The newspaper notes that the bill would shift the burden of responsibility for children's entertainment away from parents to small-business owners, such as those who own pizza parlors and arcades. The business owners would be hard pressed to enforce the restrictions unless they removed the games altogether, the newspaper said.
However, Shimotakahara also is finding her cause affirmed in many ways. The Oregon Medical Association, the Coos Bay City Council, the American Pediatric Association and many other organizations as well as business owners support her stand.
Says her mother, Eva Germaine-Shimotakahara: "It is so heartening that so, so many people agree with her position."