A mother whose son suffered an epileptic fit while playing
Rayman Raving Rabbids on his DS is campaigning for video games to be safety tested prior to release.
According to a story on
The Mail on Sunday's website, mother Gaye Herford has teamed up with MPs to put forward a motion to ban epilepsy-inducing games and her case was to be brought to the House of Commons yesterday.
Thirty-five MPs are currently backing the proposal which, if it becomes law, will make the UK the first country in the world with such standards of safety for video games.
Ubisoft has already acted on the case and made the decision to voluntarily test all of its game prior to release, although it adds that tests of
Rayman Raving Rabbids had already shown no images posed a high risk for photosensitivity epilepsy. Rob Cooper, managing director of Ubisoft UK says: "We took the view that different people can react in different ways and made a corporate decision to pre-screen and pre-test all Ubisoft in-house developed games regardless of platform, prior to publication."
Currently, stickers warning of the risk of epileptic seizures on game boxes are voluntary and it's up to individual publishers if they warn of possible dangers or not. Fits are known to be more likely following patterns of repeated flashing light or certain intense shades of red.
If a new law is passed, all game manufacturers may have to adhere to new rules on what is considered safe and acceptable.
