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[[ADVERTISEMENT=16]]The current legislation, The Youth Protection Law which restricts video games sales in Germany, was passed in June 2002 after the April 2002 Columbine style school shooting in Erfurt, Germany. This latest incident, perpetrated by an eighteen year old Counterstrike player and gun nut, has caused several German politicians to rail against so called “killer games”.

"Killer games make a fatal contribution to a growing tendency towards violence and they promote aggressive behavior,” said Jörg Schönbohm, the interior minister of the eastern state of Brandenburg, to Der Speigel. “That's why strict action is needed against games that glorify violence."

Germany features some of the most restrictive game laws in Europe with a special department of the government to examine and index media that could be harmful to children. Games, like Painkiller, the Quake series, and the Unreal series, that receive the highest rating, can only be purchased by customers over the age of eighteen. In addition to not being able to be sold to people under eighteen, there are restrictions placed on public demonstrations of these games. Games like Counterstrike, which carry a sixteen and over rating, can be only shown after 10 pm on TV and games like Quake 4, which carry the eighteen and over rating, can only be shown after 11 pm.

The Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons or BPjM (Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien), is authorized under the Youth Protection Law (Jugendschutzgesetz – JuSchG) to protect the youth of Germany from videos, DVDs, computer games, audio records and CDs, print media, and internet sites which might contain indecent, extremely violent, crime-inducing, anti-semitic, or otherwise racist material....