Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 5:45 pm on 16 October 2007.
May I ask one question, and I hope that I am not ruled out of order for doing so? You touched on a very important point: the amount of violent images in society at large. One of the justifications for bringing forward this very worthy set of clauses is the fact that people looking at violent pornography could commit violent acts—there could be a link between looking at that pornography and committing a violent act. I think that when you answered the question, you said that more general violence can have implications. For example, we know that there are many hugely violent video games in which casual murder is glorified. Do you see that as an area of concern as well? Huge numbers of young people are being knifed and gunned down on our streets. Do you think that there is a link between that and our casualisation of violence at a societal level?