National Institute on Media and the Family

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The National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF), founded by psychologist Dr. David Walsh in 1996, is a non-profit organization based in Minneapolis, MN. It is a nonsectarian advocacy group which seeks to monitor mass media for content that it deems is harmful to children and families.

Dr. Walsh has proposed the coining of a neologism to fill what he sees is a gap in English vocabulary: "killographic", defined as the "graphic depiction of brutal violence." This is intended as an analogy to "pornographic", which he defines as the "graphic depiction of sexual acts".[1] This term has been the subject of considerable public debate. Doug Lowenstein, head of the Entertainment Software Association, described it as a "clever phrase", but noted that the average age of video gamers is 28, and that "as adults they should be allowed to pick their entertainment."[2]

In 2005, NIMF falsely claimed that the video game industry was promoting cannibalism, by pointing out and showing video clips of a game titled "Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse." Dr. Walsh was asked about this in a podcast interview with Dennis McCauley, owner of gamepolitics.com and rather than apologizing for making the false claims, Dr. Walsh actually blamed the gamers for the flap. He claimed the gamers essentially tricked him into thinking there was cannibalism in the game.

The 2005 video game report card also caused more embarassment for the NIMF. The group claimed they had the support of the National PTA when criticizing the Entertainment Software Rating Board's (ESRB) rating system, but a few days after the report card was released, the National PTA issued a press release blasting the NIMF, stating the report card "contained erroneous statements about National PTA's position on the Entertainment Software Rating Board's (ESRB) rating system. In fact, National PTA does not endorse NIMF's report. Further, it does not agree with the report's characterization of ESRB and its rating system."[3]


[edit] References

  1. ^ Walsh, David (2006). Killographic Entertainment. National Institute on Media and the Family. Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
  2. ^ Group warns parents about 'killographic' games. CNN.com (2003-12-09). Retrieved on 2006-09-02.
  3. ^ National PTA Statement on Video Game Report Card. pta.org (2005-12-01). Retrieved on 2006-10-14.

[edit] External links

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