What would you do to protect minors from violent images? For the European Union, that would mean coaxing the video game industry to come up with a widely-accepted code of conduct for that very purpose. The EU has set a deadline for that, too. More politics follows after the jump.

If you're a video game developer, wouldn't it be great if the government were to give you a 20% tax rebate on all of the games that you produce?

That's exactly what UK developers are thinking, and they're urging their government to seriously consider implementing tax breaks to support the UK games industry. Their example is, of course, France.

More taxing details after the jump!

In a move that seems like a breath of fresh air within the gaming industry in general, the French Ministry of Culture has just recently announced that their government shall be offering tax credits to local game companies.

As part of the effort to encourage local developers, French Parliament has approved the proposal to offer the mentioned tax credits to "producers of video games 'with a cultural dimension.'"

With this benefit in place, a company's production costs may be reduced by up to 20% a year, with a maximum of up to €3M (about US$ 3.91M).

In a statement that the Ministry of Culture has released, they have noted that this move was prompted by the fact that they have recognized the increasing cultural significance of video games, and that they are hoping that the implementation of these tax credits would keep video game production within France, and maybe eliminate the need to outsource in other countries.

The statement also mentioned that this movement "recognizes the cultural character of the video game, which involves several branches of artistic talent: writers, directors, graphic artists, musical and sound creators."

In the meantime, the European Commission is already examining the proposed measure, which is expected to be finalized within the next few weeks.

On a side note, we can't help but wonder about two things: did the self-appointed Prime Minister of video games, Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres have a hand in all of this? And does this spell more rabbids (Rabbids: published by Ubisoft: based in France) for the rest of the world? Hmmm...

If the German Government has its way, we could be looking at an EU-wide ban on violent games. It has taken the initiative to the European Commission's justice minsters, requesting for more control over violent gaming across the 27 countries in the Union.

"A certain degree of linkage between the growing violence among the younger generation and the growing diffusion of violent games exists," said European Justice commissioner Franco Frattini during Dresden meeting last Tuesday.

In connection with their initiative, the German Government announced it was conducting a study of each of the country's rules governing video gaming. The study is hoped to help establish a centralized ruling system.

"The Commission wants to see a combination of outright bans on the most violent games, together with minimum age rules on other titles," Frattini said.

In related news, the Interactive Software Federation of Europe objected to the proposed ban. While they agreed on Frattini's reiteration of protecting children from bad influences, they strongly proposed an age-rating system much like in movies instead of outright prohibition

It will be remembered that Bavaria's Gunther Beckstein had made a similar statement, when he called for the ban of violent games like Counter-Strike and Call of Duty 3 in Germany last year. Consider this your latest news from the country that's brought us Heckler & Koch, Mauser, Walther...