Civil Penalties for Selling Video Games.

[Jammrock]

/.'ers may have already seen this, but for the rest of you, here it is:

http://www.gamergod.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=323

Allow me to present Michigan SB-0416, the latest attempt by the American government to protect the well being of its citizens from the cultural influence spawned from the very citizens which it seeks to protect.

This is a very well written, and thought out, article about the new lawspopping up over the US that will add civil penalties to retailers who sell "inapproriate" video games to minor.

Comments?

Jammrock

[Sasq]

not reading the article, and living in Japan, the home of hentai and dating sims...

there are lots of knee jerk reactions happening all over the globe regarding this sort of thing. it IS an evolving medium, and as such there will be some pendulmn swinging regarding laws.

hold on folks, were in for a bumpy few years.

[Claymonkey]

Honestly, just use the same methods that are used for movies or music. Personally I think violent people gravate towards them so YES violent people play them but the games/movies/music didn't make them that way.

You see the same thing repeated over and over. In the 80's it was Dungeons and Dragons, before that it was Rock and Roll, before that it was books. People need better parenting and the willingness to work with their own kids.. and stop parenting everyone else. Parenting the world never works, but parenting your kids often does.

[Marshmallowman]

unless they do something about the obscene amounts of violence that is an everyday occurence in movies and on TV series, singling out video games is delusional.

[Gurm]

Well, are there civil penalties for letting minors in to see "Alien vs. Predator"?

If so, I have no problem with similar laws being passed for video game retailers. However, if this is just a knee-jerk reactionary issue, and these same laws do not exist for magazines or movies... then it's bullshit.

[Jessterw]

Everyone just needs to get laid more often

[Dilitante1]

Everyone just needs to get laid more often

AMEN!

[High_Jumbllama]

Everyone just needs to get laid more often

And in rapid succession!

[Jessterw]

To get thing back to the topic *ahem*

I do believe there should be penalties for retailers purposely selling any mature content to minors; however, the penalties and the definition of mature content really need to be reevaluated.

The problem is that we have devolved into a society that insists on placing blaming anywhere but where it belongs, on us personally.

[KvHagedorn]

And if people are influenced to kill people from playing GTA, who is to say that age is the determining factor? Do the studies and you will probably find that certain people are wired certain ways, and only people who are antisocial and/or retarded to begin with get "ideas" from this which they might act upon.. and it is just as likely to be a 22 year old as it is a 14 year old..

Honestly, ultra-violence should NOT be the dominant influence on people who are young and impressionable, but that is what parents are supposed to be for.. and we have a real problem in this country about that, because adults themselves are inured to it. We are so ultra-puritanical that we panic when a 10yo sees the silhouetted nude dancers at the beginning of a James Bond movie, yet James Bond gunning down 100 people with a harrier is perfectly acceptable. I love the quote from Marlon Brando, who said something like "Caress a breast, it's an R rating.. cut it off with a sword and it's PG." Again, it's not an age-specific thing.. garbage in, garbage out applies to adults, too. Legislators would do much better requiring a parenting and responsibility class for students in high school, just like health class (or perhaps as half the health class year.)

[Gurm]

Whether or not the ratings are valid... is outside of the scope of the original question.

The question is - should there be (civil) penalties for selling "mature content" to minors?

Personally, I think there should be criminal penalties, not civil. But it depends on precedent - if there are already civil penalties for (as an example) letting teenagers rent pornos, or letting 10 year olds into R-rated films... then it's a logical extension of existing law.