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Video game watchdog shuts down, victim of economy

The National Institute on Media and the Family is closing its doors, a victim of the poor economy, reports the Associated Press. Founder David Walsh said when he was assembling his first report card on video game violence 13 years ago, children were attacking on-screen monsters or aliens with imaginary chain saws and guns. "When I saw kids as young as 8, 9 years old literally doing facial contortions as they killed and dismembered people, it was pretty shocking. And I think what happened is a lot of other people got shocked as well," Walsh recalls. "I don’t think we want our kids’ culture defined by killing, mayhem, and dismemberment as entertainment." That first report card, which singled out bloody first-person shooter games "Doom" and "Duke Nukem," made an instant splash on Capitol Hill in 1996 and made the annual reports issued each holiday season by Walsh’s organization a news fixture. But there was no video game report card this year, and there won’t be any more. Walsh is packing his books as his staff of eight full-time employees prepares to shut down Dec. 23. "Fundraising has been more and more difficult," Walsh said. "It really wasn’t that we put ourselves out of business, because the technology is changing so quickly, the issues just won’t quit."

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