End Violent Video Games, Lungren Asks Makers

State Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren urged video game manufacturers Tuesday to withdraw violent games that teach youngsters to “demean and destroy.”

Lungren cited a sharp jump in crime by children: a 119% increase in juvenile murder arrests between 1986 and 1991 nationally, and an increase of more than 135% in California during the same period.

“Continual exposure to violent images and themes in various entertainment may not be the direct cause of these atrocious acts,” Lungren said in a letter to 12 game companies. But he said interactive games that promote violence “do have a deadening, desensitizing impact on young, impressionable minds.”

In particular, he cited video games called “Mortal Kombat” and “Night Trap.”

Lungren’s office said “Mortal Kombat” depicts bloody decapitations and scenes where a still-beating heart is pulled from a body; “Night Trap” includes scenes of female college students hanging on meat hooks.

Bill White, an executive of Sega, a Redwood City-based firm that markets “Night Trap,” said the game package is labeled for mature audiences only and the company has no plans to withdraw it.

“We shouldn’t regulate the themes of our games, but we should provide more information to the consumer so they can decide whether it should be allowed into the home or not,” White said.

Under a movie-style ratings system introduced this year, a panel of psychologists, sociologists and educators rates Sega videos as suitable for a general audience (GA), teen-agers over 13 (MA-13) or mature audiences over 17 (MA-17), he said.

A spokeswoman for Acclaim Entertainment Inc., maker of “Mortal Kombat,” did not immediately return a phone call from company headquarters in Oyster Bay, N.Y.

Lungren told a news conference he was “issuing a strong consumer warning to the parents of California” but wasn’t proposing censorship or a legal crackdown.

Lungren’s letter was addressed to industry leaders Nintendo, Sega and Capcom, as well as to developers Hasbro and Acclaim Entertainment, plus seven retailers.