A lawmaker in the New York State Assembly has introduced a bill that would keep mature-rated video games behind sealed and locked containers at retail stores, place warning labels on the games and force retailers to have playable copies on hand to show worried parents.
Assemblyman Brian Kolb's bill states that children "are entitled to grow-up in a positive setting and be shielded from graphic violence and offensive depictions now found in video games." Further, it says the current system in place by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board is insufficient for parents.
There's plenty of untested logic infused into the bill's opening statements, such as the belief that violent games desensitize children more than other media because they are played "over and over" while a movie is only watched "once or twice." The famed 2001 study that found increased aggression in people who played violent games is mentioned as well, though those findings are disputed to this day.
In any case, the really wacky stuff is found in the meat of the bill. The state would impose an 18 and over age restriction and slap a warning label on games that depict violent crimes, suicide, sodomy, rape, incest, bestiality, violent racism, religious violence, sado-masichism, sexual assault, sexual activity, murder, morbid violence or drug use. But here's the thing: the warning label would list all of those things even if the game only depicts one of them.
In my 20 years of playing video games, I've never seen one that displays bestiality, rape or any of the other more horrifying things on that list. Furthermore, as M-rated games like Bioshock and Fallout 3 strive for artistic meaning rather than cheap thrills, locking them up and equating them to porn and snuff films seems less relevant than it did in the Mortal Kombat era. It's the same old first amendment argument, children be damned.
When these kinds of bills come out, a typical response questions whether lawmakers have better things to do. But this proposal isn't so much a waste of time as it is flat-out ridiculous.
