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The Law as a Parent
RosethornKB writes "KillerBetties.com has an editorial about the continuing attempts by the legal system to pass laws regulating the sale of video games. From the article: "The latest is one coming out of Illinois. Governor Blagojevich is proposing legislation and his explanation says, among other things: "Parenting is hard work, and the state has a compelling interest in helping parents raise their children to be upstanding men and women." How does passing laws to restrict the sale of violent games and put tight restrictions on the industry's labeling systems help parents raise their children?""
... or on French TV, the green circle, yellow triangle, and red square that appear in the bottom-right corner of shows/movies (during the entire thing, as opposed to the black/white notices before shows in the US) ... designed to let parents stroll through a room, glance at the TV, and just *know* if something is inappropriate or not. It's doable in video games. And it could easily be a private thing -- companies wanting to have it as a seal of good will / parternship / whatever: parents might automatically consider any game that doesn't have a symbol in the lower-right corner of the screen to be worthy of more attention for lack of rating. Or not. Whatever.
Laws are about protecting society from harm -- does that include harming yourself voluntarily? I'm not sure I understand your definition.
With a law preventing Miller's and Smith's children from buying the game, they children just go over to Jones' house to play the game and the parents never even find out what they are playing and never have the chance to discuss the ethics and morality of the video game with them since they are ignorant of its existence. Jones' on the other hand has a chance to sit down with his child and the video game and go through it, talking about it in a very real, very honest way and making an impact on his child. It's just another way of addressing socially right and wrong behaviors. Now say Smith's child goes out and breaks a law or does something stupid he sees in a video game -- what will Smith blame? Himself for being an uninvolved parent who didn't know what his child was doing or the video game? He'll blame the video game that he didn't even want his child to play and he'll point to the law stating obviously the government agrees. Giving that kind of fuel to parents who should be responsible for the actions of their children is just another way to avoid taking responsibility for actions. It's a common trend in this country, though. Why not just add video games to the list of excuses people can use? That is *all* this law will accomplish.
Killer Betties - www.killerbetties.com
Movies are self-regulated, but only after repeated threats from government that it either self-regulate or be regulated by government. This has happened many times, with major events in 1909-1915 (several states wanting to regulate), 1950-1965 (more threatened regulations), and 1983-1991 (introduction of more ratings and more threatened regulations). They are regulated, just self-regulated with threats of governmental regulations. The same thing recently happened with music: they were told either to put together their own regulation system or have one forced on them.
Cars are regulated. You can't just build your own car and drive it on the roads without having it pass various legal requirements. The car must be registered and pass roadworthy requirements, or have a waiver of the requirements. Minors either cannot hold drivers licenses, have graduated restrictions, or are otherwise regulated for minors.
Sex. This is actually heavily regulated. Rape and statutory rape, molestation, prostitution, and many other sexual acts are all legislated. A few studies have found most teenage pregnancies are due to underage girls with adult males. Those are all covered under statutory rape and/or prostitution laws. In most US states, children under age 16 cannot legally have consentual sex, basically for the same reason they can't sign contracts (as you mentioned in your post). After age 16, things get a bit tricky, but as you can see, it *IS* regulated.
liquor and tobacco, obviously regulated by the ATF in the US.
marriage. Many states have legal definitions of marraige, requirements on who can get married, what constitutes a commonlaw marraige. For example, some people seem to think of Utah as a home of polygamists, but one requirement Congress made for Utah's statehood was to have and enforce laws preventing polygamy. After 110 years, they are still enforced, and sometimes make national news. That's all regulation.
Looks like 6/6 to me.
frob
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