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GA Proposes Restricting Game Sales to Minors
HarryCaul writes "The Georgia Legislature has a bill proposing the restriction of sales of video games to minors. This bill is independent of the voluntary ratings in that it would prohibit the sale of "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel" games to children. Another bill from the same legislator would take the more reasonable step of requiring stores to post a sign explaining the video game rating system. From the article: "The video game proposal is one of several like it being introduced across the country. Lawmakers in North Carolina, Illinois and Michigan are among those considering similar measures."
Glad this wasn't around when I was like 12 and buying Doom. I still have never had anyone id me to buy an M rated game though. My 13 year old brother got ided when he bought GTA and they still let him buy the game.
i dont know why this is really news, i mean, they've had this in washington state fer a while now, and im shur a lot of other states too.
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
On the one hand, this seems like a good idea. It holds the stores responsible for not enforcing the policies that they have in place - mainly fining them for selling (or renting) M-rated games to minors. Great, I guess.
On the other hand, I'm not really sure that this will fix the problem of uninformed parents buying and renting the games for their children. I don't have a problem with people deciding that it's ok that their child plays a game. I have a problem with parents not knowing what the game is and getting it for their kids because "my friend's mom said it's ok". That happens all the time. Are these parents going to be fined, too?
I won't say "You can mod me down if you want, but..." because I hate it when people say that.
But...
I think this is a Good Thing(tm). They've been doing it with movies for ever and I don't remember it destroying my civil liberties when I was a child.
Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
(yes, i know there are responsible youth gun owners, but which requires more responsibility... guns or video games?)
This just in:
In a nationwide first, all 50 states have agreed to pass state-specific laws relegating parenting to the government in various degrees. Local governments will ensure that children play the appropriate games, watch the appropriate movies, and hear apprporiate radio stations. In addition 'teen-camps' will be set up with handy drop off zones for parents (most open 24 hours). Parents are not required to pick up their children, or actually know the childs interests or first names.
Local residents appear to be largely in favor of this bold move. Sandy Jones of Smithington, PA said "Well it's about time. I can't tell you how many times whats-his-name has done some stuff to piss me off. You wanna hit 'em, you know? But you're not allowed to these days. It's a big relief to know I'll be able to drop the devil spawn off into the hands of a responsible, accurate, and accountable organization like the US government."
Some city services are already beaming at the economic opportunites. The transit authority is in the process of setting up a VIP program for parents, picking children up at their very front doors.
Reasonable, intelligent people could not be reached for comment.
-- I have fans? Wow.
Depending on usage, it can mean opposite things. If you restrict game sales to minors, that's supposed to mean it limits their ability to buy, but as dictionary.com points out, restricting land to recreational use means it should only be used for that purpose.
I always thought that there were actually two phrases, restricting from as well as restricting to something, but apparently that's not common usage.
if I read the original Grimm's Fairy Tales to my kids?
sheesh.
i thought that the ratings system was a law restricting the sale of certain games to minors. i guess that im wrong though. i think that some of these laws are going too far in trying to protect these kids. i mean i know that they shouldnt be seeing someone get cut to peices or get a lap dance, but where are the parents when their kids are doing this stuff. maybe im missing something because im not a parent myself, but we cant just keep making laws to try and protect these kids from this stuff. There has to be some point where the mother of father just says no you cant have this. and if the kid goes somewhere else and plays this game then the parent should have every right to bend that kid over his/her knee and whip their ass. there are better, more efficent ways to raise these kids instead of wasting tax money so these guys can meet and decide that the stores need to put up a sign.
damn, i'm not a minor anymore, won't be able to get doom 3.
do me a favour; plug me into a sega
Now, I'd be the first person to say that video games don't screw you up, but after hearing my LB talk about this for what seems like an eternity, I'm not so sure anymore. Letting an eleven-year old kid play this is completely screwed up. I know that there's not much they could do if his mom bought it and gave it to the kid, but there's gotta be something that the gov't can do so that kids with parents who obviously don't care about their children won't spend entire days focusing on the best method to break somebody's neck, or the best technique for putting as many swords into somebody else's body (with the resulting blood spurt).
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
I was in Walmart not too long ago, and there was this Mother and her 9 to 11 year old son with her. She was buying him a copy of "Max Payne"--an M-Rated game--for the PS2. Most kids don't have the $20-$50 it takes to buy a new game, it's the parents that buy most of them, so what difference does it make if the parents are buying M-Rated games for their kids?
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
When I was a kid I barely had enough money to buy a comic book once a month. Now it seems that kids have enough cash flow to buy M-rated games and what not at the drop of a hat. I think I grew up in the wrong generation. :P
Back on topic, I agree that kids shouldn't be allowed to buy M-rated games. It's the same deal as movies, books, or any other medium. Of course, it's ultimately up to the parents and how they want to bring up their kids. What's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander.
I know when I was younger my parents were generally always making sure I wasn't doing things I wasn't supposed to, but on those occasions that they allowed me to run off by myself, if I wanted to go see a rated R movie, I wouldn't have been able to get in. I ask you, really, what is the difference between enforcing laws that keep kids from watching movies that have been deemed too violet or sexual or whatnot, to keeping them from being able to buy games of the same nature without parental consent? Nothing really.. If the parents allow it then the kid can still do it, this will hopefully just make the parents realise that maybe they shouldn't get their kid "game x" because it is rated mature, maybe they'll pay a little more attention to what they buy now.
If they restrict the sales of video games to minors, how will us adults purchase our video games?! Soon, we'll have to stand outside of the local game shop, asking 14 year old kids if they'd be willing to buy a game for us, and...
Oh, wait. They mean that sales of video games to minors will be restricted. I suppose that's a little different, then.
That green slime had it coming.
Where are the laws banning the sale of Harry Potter books to minors? I'm a christian fundamentalist and i find the Harry Potter books offensive and unsuitable for my under 18 year old children.
I can't be expected to be around my kids 24/7 and nor should i have to. Also my son has a paper route and gets money from his relatives on christmas and his birthday. He could just go out to the store, buy a Harry Potter book, sneek it home and read when i've gone out. I would never know he had it. If other parents are fine with their kids reading Harry potter books, then they can just go out and buy it for them. But a law banning the sale of Harry Potter books to those under 18 would be a great TOOL to help me parent my children better.
It would restrict games that show graphic pain or suffering, show violence that would be a crime in real life, have characters that commit violence without remorse and have sound or other effects meant to enhance the violence.
That would apply to most RTS games as well. I'm currently playing Kohan II and so is my 11 year old son (who's beating me most of the time). It's a great strategical game (think Warcraft without the micro-managing click-fest aspect) and I bet no-one would consider it violent. Yet, you are fighting with armies and units get killed so doesn't that make "show graphic pain or suffering" apply to it?This could be good or bad depending on how well they can define the rules.
From the text of the article, it's not banning M-rated games sold to children. It's banning:
"games that show graphic pain or suffering, show violence that would be a crime in real life, have characters that commit violence without remorse and have sound or other effects meant to enhance the violence."
In other words they want to establish a SECOND standard outside of the ESRB/ISDA/USFDA/whatever ratings of T and M and so on. Under that banner, even some games that are rated E for everyone would count; don't the little mushrooms squeal when you violently stomp on them..?
If they were going to give the M rating some teeth, well, that I can get behind. But this is just pandering to the moralistic crusade mentality, trying to punish the industry.
Thankfully they aren't banning ADVERTISING mature games, like other state bills were trying to do. Once you cripple the ability to promote your new M-rated game, it doesn't matter if you can only sell it to appropriate people or not... the appropriate people won't hear about it. And no, word of mouth / the net is not enough. Banning ads from any source kids might see is not going to help your profits any.
They love to take the easy way out of things. Since they can't pass a law to make Parents more responsible they do this. Your average kid under the age of 17 doesnt have $50 to spend on violent video games...if they have the money its cuz their parents gave it to them. All this law means is that friends older brothers and drunk guys in the alley will be buying violent games for your children. If you dont want a child having a violent video game, don't let him have a TV in his room, look through his game collection, and don't buy him any! There was a big protest near me last week (Washington DC) of parents complaining, and when the Post interviewed game stores in the area they all said that whenever they refuse to sell a kid a game, the kid just returns with a grownup.
One of our state representives recently proposed abolishing the instruction of all theory in schools. Yay enlightened government!
Oh no! It uses dirty words! Hurry! Someone start up ye olde book burning mobile, and modify it to accept video game cartridges/discs!!!
Video Production Support
Ah, well, keep your slaves stupid and they won't revolt.
I am NOT a number! I am a - oh wait, I'm number 761710. Look! 761710!
I honestly agree with this policy. When I have kids I don't want them buying Doom 3 and playing it when they're 10 years old without my knowledge. While I do not currently forsee myself forbidding such a game, I would most certainly like some sort of regulation on what my children can do. If they want a game as such, I will go buy it for them. But this is just one of many possible solutions to the "problem."
Other times the terrible mind warping stuff was books, movies, or music. Now it's videogames.
Doom, GTA, neck snapping in Price of Persia 2, and virtually storming the beaches at Normandy in Day of Defeat isn't going to turn kids into rampaging pairs of Harris & Klebold any more than D&D turned me and my friends into throat slashing demonically possessed murderers.
This is *stupid* and so are the legislators pushing it and the people who support it.
I have no idea why you are blaming the Catholic Church on this. For one thing, the Cathol Church LIKES Harry Potter. As for whoever this minister is, I have no idea why they are giving a sermon. And I can not even be sure that he is Catholic from what you say. The only ones who I have ever heard give a sermon in a Catholic Church are priests.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
We just need to ban soccer moms!
Think about it! What other species of subhuman is too self-absorbed to acknowledge the PROBABILITY that if their child is warped by videogames/movies/insert popular scapegoat of the moment here, they were fucked up to start with?
This is a real question not a rhetorical one (I'm not in the US so I don't know the law). But is the restricted sale of movies mandated by law or by policy?I figure that hardcore porn might be legally-restricted, but what about other stuff?
speaking as a christian, and a minor (for another couple of months), I just want it to be know that no, we are not all D&D burning, Halo CD snapping, Harry potter hating, zelots.
The majority of my friends are christian, and what do we do in our spare time? Halo 2 deathmatch.
Sure they review my game collection, and so they should as parents. Its their job and their duty. However just because a game has a big "M" printed on the side doesn't mean it gets the boot. Example: GTA, you go around killing cops, stealing cars, and dealing crack. Banned from the home? Of course!
Halo 2: you go around fighting a war against an alien in a desprate attempt to save mankind. Banned? Nope.
Later today I'm going to try and pick up a copy of guild wars, a game based almost completely on D&D, I'll play it for a little while and if my parents disslike the content of it, I'll trade it in for a star wars game.
All in all, untill I move out, go to collage and have a life of my own, its up to them, what I watch, play, and/or do.
Well, I'm done ranting, I'm just getting rather tired of christians in general being characterized as loony nutjobs with a distain for anything that doesn't have WWJD slapped on it.