Mother launches attack on epilepsy inducing video games

Wants safety checks

By James Sherwood • Get more from this author

6th December 2007 16:58 GMT

Videogame developers may be forced to cut scenes from their offerings if tests show they could cause epileptic seizures, if a British mother's campaign for a change in the law is successful.

Somerset dentist Gaye Herford launched the campaign after her ten-year-old son suffered a seizure while playing Rayman Raving Rabbids on his Nintendo DS.

She's hoping to persuade parliament to introduce a law making it illegal for publishers to release a game without first testing them for sequences that could trigger epileptic attacks, such as strobe lighting.

While TV programmes and films must already be screened for such triggers, no such tests are mandated for video games.

Ubisoft, developer of Rayman Raving Rabbids, has now voluntarily chosen to test all its games.

Some 35 MPs are already thought to be backing the campaign, which was yesterday presented before the House of Commons as an Early Day Motion.