Utah Senate, House Pass Jack Thompson's Game Sales Bill

Ars Technica reports that the Utah State Senate and House have both passed Jack Thompson's proposed legislation that would stiffen penalties for the sale of M-rated games to minors. Oddly, on its trip through the state legislature, amendments rendered it largely ineffective; retailers are in the clear if the employee who sold the game goes through a training program, or if the minor misrepresents his age. It's also possible that the bill could cause some retailers to simply take down their ESRB-related advertising. Thompson's statements about the bill put the focus on advertising, but discussion on the Utah Senate floor had a familiar ring, touching on the story of a Grand Theft Auto player who killed two policemen in 2003. The ESRB wrote an open letter in opposition of the bill, saying it could undo the efforts they've made to popularize their rating system. The bill's sponsors fired back, questioning the industry's overall commitment to ratings, and now it awaits only the governor's signature before becoming law.

Comments

Amendment 1

[Man On Pink Corner]

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Re:GTA prevents cop kills

[Scrameustache]

First, catharsis was a term invented by psychodynamicists (like Freud), whose theories were not based on good research and generally have not been supported by any psychology research. They used the term to refer to built-up unconscious conflict between id and superego. So, catharsis was a term created to explain a psychological construct (i.e., unconscious conflict) that just has not been verified by any research.

Aristotle defined catharsis as "purging of the spirit of morbid and base ideas or emotions by witnessing the playing out of such emotions or ideas on stage" (Aristotle, 2001, p. 1458).

Further, if catharsis (of aggressive behaviors) was true, then research showing increases in aggressive feelings/behaviors after watching or participating in aggressive or violent behaviors would not be true.

Thanks for the article titles, google a bit, found that citation up there here: http://primal-page.com/cathar.htm

Apparently the biggest problem here is confusion over the meaning of catharsis.

I have no structured research to give you, but I have anecdotes: Watching some good old ultraviolence, like Clockwork Orange, helps me when anger is taking over.
But showing some clockwork orange to someone who doesn't have a big ball of anger and nowhere to throw it might have the opposite effect.