British Board of Film Classification (Accountability to Parliament and Appeals) Bill

I am delighted to follow the hon. Member for Canterbury (Mr. Brazier) and I congratulate him on his good fortune in the ballot, which has given him the opportunity—one that few hon. Members have—to bring a Bill on such an important issue before the House. The hon. Gentleman presented his case with skill and eloquence—there was no hysteria in what he said—and he brought to Parliament's and the public's attention an issue of crucial concern. It is a 21st century issue that, as a result of technological changes over the last 20 years, will impact on every single household and every single child in this country and beyond. I am pleased to see my right hon. Friend the Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport in her place on the Front Bench. She will recall our pleasant meeting a few years ago, when I and other Members brought the issue to her attention. At that time, I also met my right hon. Friend the Member for St. Helens, South (Mr. Woodward)—then a Minister in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, but now the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. We explored ways in which the Government could help to ensure that the classification of video games gave adults access to them while protecting our children from them. The way that the hon. Member for Canterbury made his case is important, because this is a question not of censorship but of protecting our children in particular from having access to these terrible games, which show scenes of horrific violence, as he described. His Bill, which I am pleased to support, proposes a procedure that would ensure that the most violent of those games did not circulate in this country. I welcome the procedure and also the vast amount of time that he has put into the subject. The hon. Gentleman said in response to one of his hon. Friends that we do not come here to speak on behalf of the industry; it can make its case very eloquently. The industry is one of the strongest and most powerful in the media today, and London is the centre of that industry. Whenever those of us who raise the issue of video games have done so positively in relation to concerns about violence, we have been pilloried in the press that is sponsored by the video games industry for trying in some way to destroy it.