Proposed Bill to Criminalize Selling of Mature Games to Minors
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: gta4, mature, game | Themes: Business
Representatives from the House proposed a new bill that would force retailers to check official identification from anyone purchasing video game titles rated “M” or “AO”. Representatives Jim Matheson and Lee Terry introduced a bill this week pushing for government regulation, just as the Federal Trade Commission released a report that found retail stores selling violent video games to children despite pressure for stores to check identification.
Matheson and Lee’s bill would include requirement of identification checks and stores to post explanations of what the ratings mean. Stores found violating the law would be fined $5,000 per violation by the FTC.
"Many young children are walking into stores and are able to buy or rent these games without their parents even knowing about it. Many retailers have tried to develop voluntary policies to make sure mature games do not end up in the hands of young kids, but we need to do more to protect our children," said Terry. Some stores currently already attempt to enforce age verification before game purchases. Best Buy for example, recently pressured its retail stores to check identification during the first week Grand Theft Auto 4 was launched. Wal-mart appears to already have ESRB ratings posted at their stores and has programmed its cash registers to automatically prompt for identification checks.
Illinois and Louisiana have attempted in the past to enact similar laws, but faced fierce opposition and were struck down as being unconstitutional. It appears Terry and Matheson would like to try their luck again on a nation-wide level.
"As a parent, I know that I’m the first line of defense against my kids playing Mature-rated video games," Matheson said in a statement. "But parents can’t be everywhere monitoring everything and some reasonable, common sense rules ought to be in place to back parents up."
What's worse? The Government, or a Video game? You be the judge...
Ciggarettes are illegal to sell to minors, yet there are 12 year olds buying ciggarettes from people and smoking them.
Cocaine is illegal, and yet even high profile people in Hollywood seem to be able to get an ample supply.
Laws do nothing.
If someone wants something they will get it, regardless of how many laws are in place.
You will see 18 year old freshmen college students selling Grand Theft Auto X to school yard kids much as they do booze and cigarettes.
Kids will either trust and obey the rules their parents set forth, or break them completely...no law will stop them.
There, I just saved us all a like... a million-billion dollars, and a piece of legislation we'll all regret a decade from now.
How is this going to solve anything? Answer: It isn't, because most SANE people like myself know that there is no negative connection between playing violent video games and violence in real life.
In fact, the only connection I have seen is POSITIVE, where a person who plays a violent video game and gets rid of their negative impulses in that game, don't use them in reality.
How is this going to solve anything? Answer: It isn't, because most SANE people like myself know that there is no negative connection between playing violent video games and violence in real life.
In fact, the only connection I have seen is POSITIVE, where a person who plays a violent video game and gets rid of their negative impulses in that game, don't use them in reality.
How is this going to solve anything? Answer: It isn't, because most SANE people like myself know that there is no negative connection between playing violent video games and violence in real life.
In fact, the only connection I have seen is POSITIVE, where a person who plays a violent video game and gets rid of their negative impulses in that game, don't use them in reality.
and here is all the information about the specific bill HR5990:
http://www.statesurge.com/bills/318716
Please make comments under the bill and the rep - StateSurge.com is a site that politicians and government affairs folks use to track legislation. Make our voices heard!!!
The point of the story is education. How are kids going to know that they're supposed to beat a hooker to death with a baseball bat in an area when no when can see them so that they don't get a star? How are they going to learn to jack a new car when the old one starts smoking so that they don't get blown up in their car and have to go to the hospital and lose money?
Most kids know more about video games & computers then their parents will ever know & they think that the V-Chip or some game settings will prevent this from ever happening....Get real!
I bet the sponsors behind this bill don't even know how to enable the
V-Chip protection on their TV's..
This proposal is absurd!
In the end this law will not work (like most laws, since those that are needed can't even be enforced properly) and is a waste of time. The government should invest their time in find a solution to getting families together, instead.
For *bleeps* sake..... the people who are 'violent' in our society today are CONSERVATIVE people by and large, who are NOT PLAYING THESE GAMES! That is just a fact that even my conservative aunt had to admit when we were arguing about this.
The bigger problem is that people are not teaching their children that violence is okay in fantasy but NOT in real life. The biggest issue, however, is that most of the people who are violent in real life have SEEN violence done to others in real life or have had it done to themselves by parents or strangers.
If there was some way to prevent that, then we would finally see the rates of violence in society go DOWN, because we would break that 'cycle of violence'.
It all comes down to parenting though. Society doesn't like to hear this because then it requires parents to look in the mirror and figure out how they f'd up. Most parents who breed criminals are the type of people who blame everyone but themselves for the problems in their lives.
'It is the job of parents...' So, along those lines, I suppose there is no ID check needed for movies, cigarettes, alcohol, casinos, porn... as it is not [fill in the blank company/industry]'s job to prevent kids from accessing [fill in the blank]
Kids will get it anyway...love that logic... people can get handguns rather easily - why even bother with having a registration process? How about drugs? It's not a question of whether it can be got...
That said, the primary responsibility should lie with the parents, but clearly video game makers and retailers are targeting mature games at kids... while not exactly similar to tobacco companies advertising/targeting kids, should they not bear some responsibility or is it all about the buck/euro/peso/etc...?
Have you completely lost your mind? Conservative? Check your statistics. Blacks have an extremely high crime rate and they predominantly vote democrat. They are the majority in most of our prisons. You have no clue what you're talking about.
News, entertainment, education..look where children are getting their morals these days. Look at the way they are taught to despise each other when, for instance, they are met with opposing views on topical issues such as war, immigration and foreign policy. Social engineering.
Yes, some computer games are violent but study after study has found them not to be as influencial as certain people proclaim. There has also been a policy in the west of banning things instead of making sure they only get into the hands of mature adults (look at Manhunt 2 in the UK).
I personally see a bigger problem with minds, young and old, being conditioned to believe what they are told by the corporate America in general. If parents are at fault here then the criticism should extend beyond games, because games are not the predominant influence and when you see a child getting their education from a box in the corner of the living room you begin to question what kind of a mind that child is going to develop, and whether they will be capable of putting into perspective what they are watching.
Sorry for the quadruple post. I didn't notice that it was posting it when it tells me "page not found" after I hit sumbit. Could someone maybe, fix that?
Same problem here.