In an exclusive opinion piece for MCV, Professor Mark Griffiths has told of his concern that the British Government will not take suitable action over Dr. Tanya Byron’s Review.

Griffiths, a professor at the International Gaming Research unit at Nottingham Trent University, was an advisor on Byron’s report – which called for BBFC logos on all video games boxes and a new statutory ‘12’ age rating.

Despite praising elements of Byron’s Review and the public and Governmental attention it has achieved, Griffiths told MCV:

“One of the real problems with this type of report is that most people just read the headlines and the media stories without reading the report itself. The issues surrounding children, the internet and video gaming are not black and white but involve many considered shades of grey.

“The Government is making all the right noises about taking these issues seriously but I won’t hold my breath.”

Griffiths added that he was disappointed that Byron’s research didn’t go as far into the topic as it could.

He commented: “The report was far from ideal. One of the problems was that it was very selective in what research was read and reported.

"Each of the academics that contributed to the report was asked to contribute just five of our most important ‘must read’ papers on the topic – which meant that many of my own and other researchers’ papers went completely unread by Dr Byron.”