WOULD a film or video, that put viewers at the wheel of a high-speed car mowing down people and animals by the score, ever be allowed on the screen?

Hardly.

It would be banned. And rightly so.

Why, then, should a computer game revelling in just such sadism be permitted?

Yet, that is what is in the offing.

And just hark at the disgusting blurb accompanying the new game,Carmageddon, described by its producers as "the nastiest driving game in the world"...

"Pedestrians are the main target of the day as you drive towards and through them at speeds of over 100 mph.

"Not even farmyard animals are safe as you slam on your handbrake and spin into a cow-mincing frenzy. Blood, gut and udders fly past your car as you wheelspin through their remains."

No matter what games company SCi may say about it being too over-the-top to be taken seriously, the essence of it is utterly sick.

And so is their aim to profit from such foulness.

But it is one thing for decent people to be appalled by it and worry that it may get into the hands of games-mad youngsters - and East Lancashire MP Greg Pope is quite right to express those concerns today.

Another, however, is that this revolting game is allowed at all.

Are there no laws to ban these computer nasties?

It is high time there were - as this vile excess proves.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.