Illinois Passes Explicit Game Law

The law that the Illinois system of government has been tossing around for a while explicitly banning the sale of Mature games to minors has been passed into law. Gamasutra reports: "Like the similar bill proposed by California Senator Leland Yee, the Safe Games Illinois Act would require retailers to use warning labels in addition to the existing ESRB labels, as well as post signs within stores explaining the ESRB rating system. Sale of offending games to minors will earn stores a $1,000 fine on a petty offense, while failure to post explanatory signage will draw a $500 fine for the first three violations and $1,000 for each subsequent count."

Comments

Not that I'm opposed to such a law...

[The Warlock]

but wasn't one of these kinds of things thrown out in some big court case five years ago?

*checks*

Interactive Digital Software Association v. St. Louis County, Missouri.

Re:Not a big deal

[arete]

Actually, that's NOT a law, at least in IL. Enforcement is entirely voluntary on the part of the theater. The rule at my favorite theater is "No children under 6 in an R rated movie after 6"

yep, that's it. (It is a second-run theater, but it's a NICE second run theater, and $3)

Re:Why is this bad?

[ronfar]

Well, the actual purpose of this law is to stop stores from carrying 'M' rated games, much as they do not carry 'AO' rated games currently. They don't carry 'AO' games because if they do, they open themselves up to legal problems, and if this law sticks, retail stores in Illinois will stop carrying 'M' rated games.

Now, if this law goes into effect in Illinois and also in California, and sticks in both, then most publishers will send their games off to the ESRB and if the ESRB comes back with a 'M' or an 'AO' rating, the game publishers will edit the game until they get a 'T' rating. It's possible that two versions will be published, the 'M' rated version for more permissive states and the 'T' rated version for California and Chicago. More likely, considering that if this law is successful, other states will put in "think of the children" laws, they'll just give up and make sure everything is rated 'T.'

At which point the 'M' rating will be pretty much retired, since if you are going to be in the same boat with a 'M' or an 'AO' why bother releasing such a game, and video game content will be considerably tamer than what we see today.

Parents won't be going into stores to buy games for their kids that aren't in stock or that weren't ever published in the first place. Kids won't be able to pirate games that don't exist, and are less likely to pirate games they've never heard of.

Then, years from now, when people could care less about video games since the next big thing will likely have come along, publishers will start pushing the boundaries of the 'T' rating. But you and I may not be alive to see it.

The reason why states make laws like this, is so that they can technically pass constitutional muster while acting as a defacto ban on 'M' rated games. It is not given that this law will fail, I haven't read it but I'm sure that they looked at the previous law that failed in Indiana before writing it.