January 9, 2003 | Read Time: 2 minutes
When Danielle Shimotakahara heard that the two boys who had shot their classmates at Colorado’s
Columbine High School were avid players of violent video games, she believed their hobby had something to do with their crime. Danielle, 15, had seen her peers in Coos County, Ore., play such games and thought they were “really gross.”
In some games, she recalls, “you had a gun in your hand and you had to point it at people and pull the trigger and blood would splatter everywhere.” Especially appalling, she says, was seeing 3-year-olds sitting in pizza parlors and other businesses playing the games. “They can’t see R-rated movies,” she says, “and this is worse because they are actually doing the shooting, not just watching it.”
So Danielle started the Cool-No-Violence Peace Project, a campaign to limit children’s access to violent games.
She drafted a petition calling on businesses in her hometown to remove violent video games from their premises — and she enlisted 5,000 people to sign it.
Her efforts helped to persuade eight businesses to get rid of games rated as particularly violent by the American Amusement Machine Association. She also persuaded the Coos Bay City Council and the Oregon state legislature to pass a resolution calling on businesses to label violent video games and to restrict children’s access to them. In 2000, Danielle was invited with her father, a physician, to testify on the topic at a U.S. Senate committee hearing.
Danielle hopes to work with State Senator Ken Messerle to bring a ballot measure before Oregon voters that would require businesses to house violent video games in a clearly marked area separate from other games.
“I haven’t necessarily gotten rid of all the games in all the public places in the United States,” says Danielle. “But I am happy I have educated people, and let parents know what their kids are playing.”
