Poll: Violent Game Law Goes To Supreme Court

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Good idea. It will convince them to train their employees to check things properly knowing they would get in trouble. We had an in-store system related to the alcohol and movies when I worked at Waitrose, and it really did work. Or at least it seemed to, and we never once had a complaint or a fining offence.

 

[Altorin]

while I HATE to see anything even smelling like game censorship hit the supreme court of the US.. I agree with the concept.. but I don't like the government having a word in something that squarely falls in a parenting concern.. As long as it's a tight law with very little room for expansion.. and as long as the fines are not redonkulous (don't need to create a store that just wont sell games at all for fear of getting fined), and as long as parents have the option to buy violent games for their children without it becoming "contributing to the delinquency of a minor".. then I guess I'm ok with it.

Fines are $1000

Here is a quote from the governator so i think he has that in mind

"Today I signed legislation to ensure parent involvement in determining which video games are appropriate for their children," said Governor Schwarzenegger. "The bill I signed will require that violent video games be clearly labeled and not be sold to children under 18 years old. Many of these games are made for adults and choosing games that are appropriate for kids should be a decision made by their parents."

here is a link to the article i pulled it from http://pc.ign.com/articles/656/656998p1.html

If those are the terms, I'm fine with it.. it's just a very slippery slope..

It's not like it needs my validation anyway, I live in british columbia canada.

but this is a public forum, and I'll share my 2 cents as I please

 

[Gudrests]

it might help get all of the 12 year olds off Xbox...im fine with that

 

[KeyMaster45]

how do you enforce a law like that? spend millions in tax payer money to send in undercover "inspectors" to lurk around in gamestops and wal-marts waiting for the moment they sell an M rated game to a kid? Yeah, that's going to go over like a lead brick with the people...then again people are stupid so why am I not surprised.

Its a stupid law that is for nothing more than to make it seem like the video game industry is a bunch of banditos that are unregulated slag making money by corrupting the youth of the world and the government is saying "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!"

GG California, you elect the Govenator, a man who's stared in more violent films than he's attended speech lessons, and yet you roll out this stupid facade law to waste even more money your broke-ass-hippy state doesn't have.

 

[Altorin]

Really? I've gotten asked for my ID at multiple franchises (this was when I wasn't very clear on the rule, and just thought it was the store clerk acting on their own).

almost all stores have their own policies, but at the moment, the ESRB is strictly voluntary on the retailer/developer's part. Most stores have a "No AO/Unrated" games rule, and an "Id anyone buying M rated games that isn't clearly an old man" rule.. but those are store policies, not laws.

Its a stupid law that is for nothing more than to make it seem like the video game industry is a bunch of banditos that are unregulated slag making money by corrupting the youth of the world and the government is saying "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!

that's pretty much why I don't like it. That, and it'll be easier to make another stronger law when there's a weaker one in place.

In all honesty, I don't think there's anything wrong with any kids playing any games, ever. A kid wanting to play Grand Theft Auto? it's not going to turn him into a drug dealing murderer. Kids are smarter then society at large gives them credit for. If they're not, they need better parents and teachers, not watered down video games full of sunshines and lollipops.

 

[MortisLegio]

Good, gets half the eight year olds off Xbox Live

 

[Gladion]

Hell fucking yes. Children shouldn't be allowed to buy porn, and they sure as hell shouldn't be able to buy games with it (without parental consent, of course.)

There is no rational reason to prevent children seeing porn.

Porn desensitzes, raises false expectations and destroys the imagination (as in, they are likely to develop dull sex lives due to lack of creativity and curiosity). Also, there are serious amounts of disgusting sex practises recorded on video I would love to have erased from my adult mind, let alone have any kid watch them.

 

[Old Man Neck]

Oddly enough I thought that that was the point of ratings. To make sure kids just can't walk into a store and buy Painkiller or something at the age of 12. I tend to see a lot of younger kids due to scouting, and it gets quite pathetic and weird when all they can talk about is how good Modern Warfare 2. However, I would be in favor of lowering the Mature game age down to 16, since at that point, no one seems to care.

 

[mboagni]

Parents buy these games for their kids, solve that if you don't want the kids to play them.

 

[Sjakie]

It's not a bad idea, but i would not call it good either.

Parents should be the ones who decide what their kids play, not some underpaid storeclerk who doesn't give a damn. This moves responsibility from parents to the store clerks, which IS a bad idea!

 

[PopeJewish]

how do you enforce a law like that? spend millions in tax payer money to send in undercover "inspectors" to lurk around in gamestops and wal-marts waiting for the moment they sell an M rated game to a kid? Yeah, that's going to go over like a lead brick with the people...then again people are stupid so why am I not surprised.

Its a stupid law that is for nothing more than to make it seem like the video game industry is a bunch of banditos that are unregulated slag making money by corrupting the youth of the world and the government is saying "YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!"

GG California, you elect the Govenator, a man who's stared in more violent films than he's attended speech lessons, and yet you roll out this stupid facade law to waste even more money your broke-ass-hippy state doesn't have.

There are several reasons to have a law like this, but mostly it's to quiet critics who say it's too easy for children to get their hands on m-rated games. I support that. How does it make it seem like the VG industry is a bunch of banditos that want to break the law? Or corrupt the youth (which is a totally different argument altogether and one which is widely excused as being nonsense). Also, what do banditos have to do with LOTR? Besides all that, it's not creating a new law, it's an effort to get stores to more rigorously enforce the current law. A law which, by the way, game developers support.

The easiest way to enforce it is to do exactly what they do with alcohol/tobacco etc laws, and what (very occasionally) gets done with games. Every now and again the cops send in a minor to attempt to buy the product in question and see what happens. It's not some super long stake-out process. It's more the random spot-check approach.

Again, minors aren't allowed, by LAW mind you, to buy these games anyway. This is simply more impetus for game stores to enforce the law. So you seem to be overreacting quite a bit here

 

[xdgt]

I'd normally say get the government the hell away from the person's decision to buy something, but seeing as how its about not selling M rated games to kids, that just makes perfect sense to me, you don't see people selling alcohol without seeing someone ID first yet when i grew up noone bothered to look at anything but the price when they sold games to me (not that my parents ever had a problem with me playing any games). But it should help shut up all those obnoxious people blaming the whole universe for fucking up their kids instead of themselves - if you force parents to realise that a game their kid insists on buying actually has mature content than maybe they'll think twice before blaming the store for selling it and a far-fetch here - maybe even consider not buying the damn thing just to shut up their kid and forget he ever exists.

 

[NIHILHATE]

With all the money they'd be making from kids buying M games, they probably wouldn't even notice the fines.

 

[meepop]

First of all, what the heck's the big difference?! So what if kids are playing games? Most parents will buy 'M' rated games for their kids already; does it REALLY matter if they need a parent or not? It's the parent's problem if they don't know what they've bought for their kids, unless they're trusting, so I really don't see the big deal.

Second of all, why do they believe that fining them is going to help? It's like Prohibition in the 1900's, people will still sell 'M' games to underage kids like drugs, alcohol, and porn; making something illegal makes people do it more. Please note I'm not against making a fine and games rated 'M' more restricted, but games are like the alcohol to the gamer's alcoholism; this could seriously backfire!

 

[Enigma6667]

Usually, if it's the government complaining about violent video games, I wouldn't bother, but this is a legitimate cause. Games shouldn't go to underage kids without the permission of an adult. And maybe this way, we'll get less annoying 12 year olds on XBOX LIVE.

 

[Schneizel]

Hell fucking yes. Children shouldn't be allowed to buy porn, and they sure as hell shouldn't be able to buy games with it (without parental consent, of course.)

There is no rational reason to prevent children seeing porn.

Porn desensitzes, raises false expectations and destroys the imagination (as in, they are likely to develop dull sex lives due to lack of creativity and curiosity). Also, there are serious amounts of disgusting sex practises recorded on video I would love to have erased from my adult mind, let alone have any kid watch them.

Regardless of your opinions about porn, it is not a government's place to decide what is morally wrong for a child to see.

 

[Chunko]

http://gameon.msn.com/articles/4753/Violent-Game-Law-Goes-To-Supreme-Court

Basically California wants to fine retailers that sell M rated games to underage kids.
Personalty I don't care ether way as most stores I have been asked for ID if I was buying an M rated game when i was about 18 so i guess its doing nothing but enforcing an already accepted practice.

I do hope games get protection under the first amendment which seems to be the argument behind the court case from the looks of it.

Their state is bankrupt, they're just making a last ditch effort to raise money.