House of Commons to debate video game epilepsy testing

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Campaigner hopes to force rethink on how games are screened for epilepsy risk

Video games and their potential for causing photo sensitive epileptic seizures is to be the subject of a House of Commons debate in the UK after a long campaign by a mum whose son suffered a first time fit while playing the Nintendo DS version of Rayman Raving Rabbids. You can read about theoriginal story here.

The mum, Gaye Herford, wants new 'safety-testing' laws for videogames that would make it a legal requirement for game makers to ensure their games contain no scenes that could trigger a seizure. Currently, publishers only include epilepsy warnings for games voluntarily.

If the UK law changes, it would bring video games in line with TV and film, both of which are already required by law to be screened for any risk of causing photo-sensitive epilepsy seizures.

The House of Commons debate is still to be scheduled.

Matt Cundy
Matt Cundy
I don't have the energy to really hate anything properly. Most things I think are OK or inoffensively average. I do love quite a lot of stuff as well, though.