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GA Proposes Restricting Game Sales to Minors

Posted by Zonk on from the my-favorite-hysteria-is-mass-hysteria dept.

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."

4 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Anecdocal evidence by ted1488 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why should the gov't be responsible be people not raising their kids right. i agree with you that your LB shouldnt be playing that kind of a game, but what more can the gov't do to prevent this. they cant send someone out to watch over every parents shoulder and when a parent lets their kid do something that they shoudnt, that man cant be there to slap the parents fingers and tell them "no!" the government can not control the way that parents raise their kids, it all comes down to old fashion parenting.

  2. Where do the kids get the money to buy games? by EhobaX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  3. About time this came up in legislature by Camien · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  4. Shades of D&D by Sean+Clifford · · Score: 4, Insightful
    When I was a kid it was D&D that was going to warp our minds and make us go postal. A friend's mom convinced him that he, me, and my friends were going to Hell and was going to turn us into rampaging murderers, so he stole my D&D books, 2 years of adventuring notes, characters, and our collectively built world. They had a good old fashioned book burning at their church.

    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.