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Illinois Passes Explicit Game Law

Posted by Zonk on from the slippery-slope dept.

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."

3 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Why is this bad? by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Personally, I think it makes sense to prohibit minors from being able to buy or rent explicit games. Should an 8 year old really be allowed to waltz in and rent GTA? Or buy Resident Evil 4? It seems that by fighting things like this, the industry is portraying itself as wanting young kids to play games with content beyond their maturity.

    But that's my $.02...

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    If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
  2. Get 'em drunk and on smokes instead! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Fines for (retaliers) selling to underage people in Illinois:

    Tobacco: $50 http://www.ilcat.org/lawsumm.htm#stma
    Alcohol: $500 http://www.alcoholsafetynetwork.org/state/AlcoholS afetyNetwork-PromotingAlcoholResponsibilityThrough CommunityPartnerships.php
    Video Games: $1000

    Yup, that's reasonable.

  3. Like it matters. by -kertrats- · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm working at Kmart this summer for some money to buy a car. I don't normally work at the checkout, but I've been called up there when it gets busy (a rarity, but it happens) and I spent my first week there on checkouts to train in on how to use them. No less than 3 times this summer have I seen a kid come up with some product that requires a birthdate, be told this, and promptly just call over their mom and have the parent just tell me that it's ok. None of them even glanced at what the product was (one was an M-rated game, one was a GNR cd, neither of which really mattered, but one was a Motley Crue DVD that looked rather obscene). This level of parenting isn't going to care if there's a sign posted explaining the ratings-they didnt care before, they won't care now.

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