How did Greg Smith come to say all this? Channel 7's report did not clarify the situation.

Please forgive me compacting the latest rebuttal down into a form.

I've just done this too many times already.

Offender: NSW Attorney General, Greg Smith

Outrageous claim: Violent and sexual games shouldn't be R-rated, they should be banned.

Tactic used: Quoting scenes out of context in disapproving voice.

Game used to validate outrage: Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)

Validity of claims (out of 10): zero

Media embellishment factor (out of 10): 8

Media Outlet: 7 News

"Journalist": Talitha Cummins

"Balanced" reporting tactics: "Find-an-angle" "he said, she said" "journalism".

Guest appearances (Jim Wallace / ACCM / Family First): Jim Wallace

Guest input (ban ALL the violence : ban ALL the sex : Oslo Massacre : Won't someone think of the children): Oslo Massacre

Sound bite: "He says they're offensive and encourage abuse"

Evidence given: Zero

Should we be worried?: Potentially yes. Greg Smith voted for an R18 rating in July. Now he is saying that he wants adult games banned.

Reason for change in opinion?: None given. (we're trying to contact his office).

Anything fishy?: Yes. Why has he suddenly come out and said this? Has Seven gone up to him and said something like, "look at this sex scene in a game, should children be allowed to play it, or should it be banned?" Because, frankly, that sets the tone of the whole report.

Direct Quote: "I think it [GTA IV] should be banned. It involves a prostitute, giving sexual favours, for money, to a man in a car and then we she gets out, he gets out with a semi automatic rifle and shoots her dead. Now what good does that do anybody?"

Long winded reason as to why he's wrong:

Well what good does any media do anyone at the end of the day?

The Deer Hunter - A miserable tale of friends going off shooting defenceless animals, then shooting Vietnamese soldiers and then one of them shoots themselves in the head. What good does that do anyone?

The Godfather? - A crime ridden family shoots everyone into a bloody mess and gets shot back. There is a wedding though. Which is lovely.

ABC News: Routinely tells us about what's wrong with the world. Includes, murder, paedophilia, war, gangs, drugs.

Little Miss Sunshine: Dysfunctional family sends young daughter off to compete in child porn contest. Features child porn competition.

Finding Nemo: Cannibalistic family massacre leads to overbearing father alienating his child who is subsequently kidknapped.

Aliens: Grumpy woman goes into space and with aim to send ultra-violent alien species into extinction. Guns, gore nothing else.

Taxi Driver: Porn-obsessed nut job goes on violent killing spree in whore house with child prostitutes. Gets commendation for it.

I won't start on the bible.

I'm sure there are many better examples of media that should be banned because they don't do any good but I'd rather see what other people can come up with.

As for Wallace's claims, here's why those are wrong.

As for why we need an R18 rating, here's that reason. The new Saints Row game is another reason.

As for the myth that only kids play games, as if it's not ridiculously-obvious enough, here's the latest report which shows that the average age of Australian gamers is now 32.

As for all the "research" that "proves" games are harmful - I've yet to see a single study that is a) scientific and b) compelling. I've seen lots of biased, try-hard articles which try desperately to sound scientific. But when they ignore all the glaring evidence to the contrary, or draw outlandish, partially-related conclusions from their results they lose every semblance of credibility.

If anyone wanted to do a scientific study, they'd have to get thousands of kids from all walks of life from all over the world and isolate each group into various subgroups which are then only allowed access to one type of media for some ten years or so (books, TV, games etc).

Until then I'll just rely on my own personal observations of playing video games with my friends for the past 30 years and playing games with my 9-yr-old son and his friends for the past few years and that is: there is no significant difference in playing games as watching violent films, TV shows, Nerf Guns, violent cartoons, Laser Tag, and running around playgrounds shooting each other with sticks.

We'll update this article as we find out how Seven's report came about.