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Clueless video game bill nears passage in New York
By Ben Kuchera | Published: June 24, 2008 - 09:20PM CT
Trying to pass legislation that impacts how games can be sold or what has to be put on them is a popular and expensive way of sending the message that you're concerned about the issues that affect the youth of today. Although every law attempted has gone down in flames, and has cost taxpayers at least $1 million through the years, politicians continue to line up to give it a go. The newest bill is A11717, proposed by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, and it has already passed through the New York State Assembly. Now it's on to the State Senate. It's a familiar story, but in this case the New York government is asking for things the industry is already doing.
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The legislation would require game consoles to include parental locks for mature content but, while this sounds good on paper, every current-generation console already has parental controls. Not only that, but the ESRB has done a great job of getting the word out on how to use said controls. The bill also wants to force games to show their ESRB ratings on the cover of the title, which is also something that is done industry-wide. Every game sold at retail has the ESRB rating on the front cover, with more detailed information on what content the game includes on the back of the box. Given that industry compliance on showing the ratings on games is already at 100 percent, it's unclear what the law would achieve.
Fighting youth violence, at least twice a year
Here's were things get a little silly: the bill also says that there will be a group created to make recommendations about game ratings and the effects that games have on youth violence. The group will have 16 members, appointed by the governor, who will each serve for three years. While there is no schedule for how often this group shall meet, the bill is strict: it has to be at least twice a year. The bill uses a lot of legalese to say the group will meet and try to stop youth violence, including racial and gender-motivated violence, and violence against law enforcement. They will do this by talking about video games, at least twice a year. With no pay. The Entertainment Software Association has already mobilized its forces against this law. Richard Taylor, Senior VP of Communications and Research contacted Ars, and he didn't have kind words for the bill. He points out that the ratings already appear on games, the consoles already have parental controls, and this is much more political than practical. "By now I'm sure we're all well aware of the Federal Government’s own statistics on video game sales; a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report showed that retailers prevented the sale of M-rated games to kids 80 percent of the time, far better than movie theaters preventing kids access to R-rated movies (65 percent of the time) and retailers preventing the sale of R-rated DVDs (53 percent of the time)," he told Ars. "This kind of investigation then is clearly part of Senator Lanza's crusade against video games and a waste of taxpayers' time and money." The Video Games Voters Network has a form letter if you'd like to contact the politicians behind this bill.
This law seeks to legislate issues that the industry has already taken care of, so the only gain would be some form of government control over gaming content. Of course, the movie, music, and publishing industries have resisted efforts to bring entertainment content under government control, so this appears to be the latest candidate for a judicial smackdown from a long line of failed bills. In the end, the politicians will get some publicity since they're trying to protect children against the so-called evils of gaming, the ESA will get any law passed struck down, and New York's taxpayers will get stuck with the bill.
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