72 Percent of Adults Support California Game Law - UPDATED

[PrimoThePro]

This poll clearly shows once again, parents giving more control to the government, because they refuse to be parents. Grow up, it's not the government, or societies job to make sure your kids acquiesce to your rules. That's your job.

It blows my mind how some parents get so angry about games just because THEY are to useless to actually be parents!

 

[black orchid1]

Doesn't effect me. Yay adulthood!
bioshock, Mass Effect, silent hill, half-life, Left4Dead, Rainbow Six, God of War.
all these games are gone from the shelves of Retailers. These games stop getting sold, which means these games stop getting made..

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! those are all my fav games :O

 

[JokerboyJordan]

This.Is.Bullshit.

I may not be directly affected but I am not happy about this.
If they do this to games then they should do the exact same to DVDs. The only reason this is happening to video games because parents are still ignorant enough to think that games are for children only.

 

[obliviondoll]

They're not saying ANYTHING about banning violent games.

They're suggesting banning the sale of violent games to minors.

I though the ESRB ratings were already legally backed? My bad.

The ratings system used here is backed up by law, there are laws governing purchase of cigarettes and alcohol and other age-rated media, so why shouldn't games be covered the same way?

Or are they and is there actually no reason for this to be made into a separate law anyway?

As far as I'm concerned, the majority of parents I know fit one of 2 types.

1. They're paying attention to what their children play, and their children only get access to media the parents consider inappropriate when they're at school or a friend's house.

2. They're not paying attention, and will probably buy R18 games for their children even if they make it illegal for the child to buy for themselves.

Example from when I worked in a second-hand store. A man brings a copy of GTA: San Andreas up to the counter
"I'd like to buy this. it's a present for my son"
"how old is your son?" Asking because he didn't look old enough to have an adult child.
"eleven"
"You sure? It's not very child-friendly"
"Yeah, he likes it, he plays it at a friend's place all the time"
"You know there are hookers and gang violence in the game, right. It doesn't show nudity or anything, but it's fairly blatant about what's happening."
Customer's wife, "I thought you said you'd watched him play the game?!"
"Only for about 10 minutes, and I didn't see anything like that. He was just driving around a city."

Five minutes later, they come back to the counter with GTA 3. "Ummm..... No."

 

[LightOfDarkness]

75% of parents surveyed know nothing about raising a child today.

Seriously, it's one quick look at the corner of the box.

E=everyone, E 10+=everyone 10 and up, T=teenagers, M=17+

 

[Cynical skeptic]

WOW! So the rumors are true, the general population in the USA is apeshit crazy. Everything that's deemed obscene lacks any value is like taking the bible literally.
Don't you guys over there have any form of vote to reform the "Miller Test"?

Heh, no. Most bodies forced to encounter the miller test typically just sidestep it. Porn and sex toys shipping in brown paper bags, the internet's network neutrality bits, etc. Its pretty much been an immovable object since it was established, as any attempt to alter or remove it would have the subtext of saying the american people are not allowed to define what is obscene. As much as I'd like to see that shitstorm...

Obscenity law is the most absurd thing they have on the books. Its been on the books for a while. Its defended, tooth and nail, by all the forces of the religious right. Until this, its pretty much been their dirty little secret these last few years. The Hadley case almost pushed it into the light, but people focused more on the "simulated CP" than the fact Hadley was thrown in jail because someone who handled his packages was offended by them.

 

[Woodsey]

I still don't understand what this California law does exactly.

It sounds like just what we have in the UK to me.

 

[Sporky111]

I find it to be terribly ironic that this is from "Common Sense Media"

Really? You think the Games Industry should be doing more? They can't do more without shooting themselves in the foot. Raise your own children.

 

[Rattler5150]

To all parents:

Stop asking the government to do your parenting for you!!

Why don't you try telling your kid NO, instead of making the government do it for you.

I'm no kid anymore ,but when I have to show my id at target to buy GTA4, that is over the line plain and simple.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

That is all.

 

[deadxero]

Typical.... it's obviously not the parents fault that kids are exposed to adult conent. Must be the deveolpers... or the publishers... or the retailers... maybe the easter bunny... that's to blame.

 

[KeyMaster45]

You know, I took a look at the common sense media website and while they offer their own reviews about video games what they fail to do is educate the parents on what the ESRB system is. In fact I would go so far as to say they actually add to this problem by creating their own rating system for games and placing it directly over the ESRB rating in the thumbnails.

To their credit they're trying to educate parents but judging by the fact they gave darksiders a review of "don't let your kids play this" users have reviewed it as appropriate for age 13+; oh and yeah kids rated it as a game for 9+....if you see the flaw of logic in that congratulations you're still sane.

They do have the ESRB rating for the game posted in their reviews, albeit at the very bottom where no one will look and then don't even say what the rating means.

Their mission statement claims to be about educating parents so they can make better decisions when purchasing various forms of media for their kids, yet they blatantly undermine that by hiding away the most crucial information that parents would need when at the store.

 

[Pyro Paul]

OT: I for one support the fact that this California law is doing such a thing as to let the parents be parents and actually take a look at what their children are playing. If they won't be there to choose appropriate content for them, then the children themselves will grow up to be ingrates and degenerates due to the games raising them and not the parents.

i hope this is sarcasm.

this law Prevents parents from being parents, completely removing the capability for an individual for making an informed decision for themself. it automatically makes a choice for them regardless of how they personally feel and acctually removes the need for them to even interact with their child at all.

 

[kebab4you]

72% of Adults in that poll are complete idiots huh? Good to know. I wish I could not care enough to just throw all responsibility to government authority.

That´s pretty sad, seeing how we sooner or later have to depend on them to keep our society alive ;_;

 

[Baron Von Evil Satan]

"What we've learned from this poll is that parents want to be the ones who decide which games their kids play, not the videogame industry."

Then why don't they fucking do it? It's not like the video games industry says "this 12 year old can play MW2, but not this one."

I really hate people sometimes...

 

[Viking Incognito]

Game stores like gamestop have policies in place that if a minor wants to buy an M rated game they have to have their parent or legal guardian present at the store to give the clerk permission. With this in place to only way a child would be negatively influenced by a video game is if their parent was irresponsible to get it for them i=or if the store broke policy. Either way, their is no reason to punish the producers.

 

[ecoho]

I realy think all parents with children who play video games should be required to read Grand Theft Childhood. If you havent read it please go do so you can most likely get it at your local library and its very good study on the effects of violent video games on children. Then parents would understand how stupid californias law is.

 

[Cynical skeptic]

I still don't understand what this California law does exactly.

It sounds like just what we have in the UK to me.

Its an attempt to circumvent all the currently established ratings and base what can be sold to minors upon a very open legal concept called the "miller test."

Basically, the test is finding an "average person" and asking him/her:
Do you find this offensive? y/n
Do you think this is pornographic? y/n
Do you think it has any value or merit? y/n

The problem is, to the average person, all three questions are just the same question with different wording.

All retailers have their own carding policies, this law is saying, in clear language, they are not good enough, and video games should be treated like cigarettes or alcohol.

Meaning retailers would have a choice between simply not carrying anything that trips the miller test or forcing their employees to quiz every customer. Take a wild guess which one they're going to choose.

-snip-

Well, the fact you called it a R18, rather than M kinda proves you're a bit outside of this equation, so I'll help a bit. Someone else mentioned the average age of people who play video games is 25-40. When was the last time you saw anyone even make an AO rated game? Never. Because all retailers refuse to carry them rather than deal with the hassle of ensuring they weren't going to minors.

This law, basically, makes it so any game that trips the miller test isn't worth the hassle it'd take to carry it.

Thus, defacto ban.

 

[Thaius]

"The Supreme Court's decision is going to have a huge impact on families and kids across the country," Steyer continued. "What we've learned from this poll is that parents want to be the ones who decide which games their kids play, not the videogame industry."

No, what we've learned from this poll is that parents want the video game industry to do all the work for them. This is ridiculous; I can't believe this many parents are such lazy failures. Between ratings, inability for underage gamers to buy M-rated games, and the parental controls that are on every modern video game system out there, the industry is doing more than enough. Parents are just too lazy to actually take responsibility for their children.