backtop

Print E-mail del.icio.us 63 comment(s) - last by encryptkeeper.. on Mar 19 at 9:22 AM
Massachusetts is latest to propose videogame law blocking minors from violent material

In the latest string of videogame law proposals, the Massachusetts legislature will hold a hearing Tuesday on House Bill 1423, which seeks to restrict minors from buying violent videogames in a similar way how minors are blocked from purchasing sexually explicit material.

As GamePolitics excerpted from HB 1423 regarding the proposed restriction, “Matter is harmful to minors if it is obscene or, if taken as a whole, it… depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community, so as to appeal predominantly to the morbid interest in violence of minors.”

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is championing this bill. “Children aged 17 and under should not be sold this stuff, so they are not getting into the hands of 9- and 10-year-olds,” said Menino’s chief of human services, Larry Mayes, to the Boston Herald.

While not actively involved in the promotion of the bill, Florida attorney Jack Thompson had a hand in authoring an early January 2007 draft of the HB 1423.

“The Mayor of Boston asked me to draft a bill, on his behalf, for the Massachusetts legislature. Mayors get to do that in Massachusetts,” Thompson said to GamePolitics.

Thompson also had a hand in drafting the HB 1381 game law, which was deemed unconstitutional and forced the state to cover the game industry’s $91,000 in legal fees.

Although Thompson sees the Massachusetts bill as similar to the one that was shot down in Louisiana, he feels that those behind the HB 1423 could achieve a different outcome. “The difference is that these people intend to win the court fight, unlike the knuckleheads in Louisiana,” he said in 2007. “That bill was constitutional. They took a dive because of (ESA boss Doug) Lowenstein’s threats.”

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
Must be a slow day in Mass...
By Fnoob on 3/18/2008 9:00:55 AM , Rating: 5
This is just plain stupid. They already have the "M" for Mature audiences, which requires ID be shown.

This is exactly the kind of trivial time wasting proposal I would expect from our do-nothing Congress.




RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By FITCamaro on 3/18/08, Rating: 0
RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By Fnoob on 3/18/2008 9:35:39 AM , Rating: 3
Gotta love liberals.

I throw the whole lot of them under the bus, absoFNlutely worthless. Besides, there will be NO bashing of ill-conceived liberal agendas here. No sir. Not on this site.

I can just imagine the minutes from Congress on this one :

-'Speaker recognises our esteemed college from Massachewsets'...
-'Thank you Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank you for affording me the time to address what is surely one of the most dire threats to our country's morality : violent video games!
-'oooooooohs and ahhhhhhs of approval' from the floor.
-'Yes, thank you, thank you. Clearly, ladies and gentlemen, we are at the brink of the crux of a precipice here - and it's the children we must protect!!
-'ooooh yes! Here here!'
-'Yes, thank you, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, violent video games have been shown in several government studies to cause herpes of the prefrontal lobe; and in some extreme cases... republicanism!
-'ooooooh we knew it' from the left side.
-'We object to that study' on the right. 'We have done our own independent multi-billion $$ studies that show that these games do in fact cause brain herpes, but also cause a spontaneous desire to have abortions, which we simply cannot morally allow whether or not they are actually pregant'
-Speaker 'Minority Whip, could you please have the rep from AL sit down'....

This goes back and forth for 6-8 months, until, in the end it is proven that G.W.Bush is actually the one responsible.


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By xsilver on 3/18/2008 9:57:21 AM , Rating: 4
You're attacking liberals for being liberal rather than just judging each case by its merits and then figuring out whats right without consequence to which side its on.

It would be like generalizing republicans as being a bunch of gun toting, tobacco chewing inbred hicks rather than just seeing them for the person they are and arguing the particular case.


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By Fnoob on 3/18/08, Rating: -1
RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By onwisconsin on 3/18/2008 11:28:04 AM , Rating: 3
Mebbe you'd prefer totalitarianism. Faster and more efficient with twice the fear of a Bush Administration!


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By FITCamaro on 3/18/08, Rating: -1
RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By jeff834 on 3/18/2008 11:49:06 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe not TWICE the fear of a Bush administration. 1.24x at MOST. It's a balance issue between having a big enough military footprint to not fear other countries and keeping it reasonable so as not to fear your own country. At least when the dictators stage an election they actually get the majority vote...


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By slacker57 on 3/18/2008 3:38:01 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
You're attacking liberals for being liberal rather than just judging each case by its merits


quote:
I certainly am not. I recall throwing them all under the bus as worthless, do-nothing, incompetant, overpaid blowhards.


So, basically, what you are saying is, "I am so smart.
I am so smart. S-M-R-T. I mean S-M-A-R-T."


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By Polynikes on 3/18/2008 10:30:37 AM , Rating: 5
Last time I checked, both liberals and conservatives were all about censoring video games. You can't pin this on one party alone.

(Libertarian 4 life.)


By Oregonian2 on 3/18/2008 3:59:09 PM , Rating: 3
Just a comment that you've poked at one of the things that tends to be ignored.

There's political conservative/liberal that is usually economy/money based, and there's the usually religious based conservative/liberal social issue positions. They can be the same people but also not be -- they're different groups and concepts. I, for instance, am very conservative and very liberal respectively. The press tries to use terms in the way that's best for their own benefit which tends to confuse things even more.


By JoshuaBuss on 3/18/2008 4:05:37 PM , Rating: 2
yup.

sooner people realize there's more violence in your typical prime time TV show than most M rated video games the better.


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By gramboh on 3/19/2008 2:44:26 AM , Rating: 2
Libertarian here as well. This law is ridiculous, almost as ridiculous as bashing political ideologies without thinking, which only supporters of the Republican party seem to be doing these days (anyone else notice that?).


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By molgenit on 3/18/2008 11:14:37 AM , Rating: 5
What does Congress or Bush have to do with this? READ the ARTICLE! The Massachusetts legislature is debating this NOT the federal government.


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By Omega215D on 3/18/2008 4:04:25 PM , Rating: 1
They come from the same state where Lite Brites are deemed dangerous.


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By TITAN1080 on 3/18/08, Rating: 0
RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By Fenixgoon on 3/18/2008 9:14:06 AM , Rating: 2
yep, every retail store I've seen has a policy that M games must be purchased by someone 17 or above, meeting the criteria for M+ (17 and older). What happens is mommy or daddy buys GTA for little timmy thinking it's just another game.

I don't see how legislatures can be so dumb; do none of these people have kids? Then again, that could be a good thing...


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By novacthall on 3/18/2008 9:35:04 AM , Rating: 5
Funny you should mention that scenario, actually. I have a tale to that effect.

Way back when, I had a friend who worked in an EB at the local mall. I'd go over to hang out on some weeknights to keep him company and help pass the hours until he could clock out. Mostly, we'd talk and play games, but every once in a while a customer would come through that made us scratch our heads.

One night, a woman and a small child walk into the store. The woman was young-ish and we assumed the tike to be hers. The child, in our estimation, couldn't have been older than 10. They both saunter up to the counter, and without hesitation, the child tells us he'd like Grand Theft Auto. My friend and I look at each other in disbelief. He then does what any responsible game store employee would do.

Reaching behind the counter, he finds the game. He holds it up, with the rating in plain sight of the woman and explains, "Ma'am, this game is rated 'M' for mature audiences. It is rated so for the following reasons..." at which point he rattles off the various reasons GTA games are intended for mature audiences.

The woman turns to the child, suddenly furious, and belts out "Why in the hell would you want a game like that??" Content with ourselves in having done our public service to all of gamer-kind, I won't lie to report that we felt a little ping of hope for humanity. The ball's in the kid's court, now. His response?

"But mom! It's so cool! "

To which the mother replies "Okay," and pulls out her credit card.

Slack-jawed, we stood there. Confronted with a willing and educated if not completely irresponsible customer, my friend completed the sale (EB doesn't pay him to have morals, after all). The child and the mother walked out of the store and our lives forever, but the impression that brief conversation left on us is permanent.

The moral of the story is: there is no law, no legislation, nor any amount of government regulation that will ever be any match for bad parenting.

Maybe next time I'll tell the story of the angry woman who returned "Pokemon" on the basis that it's anti-semitic... =)


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By mmntech on 3/18/2008 9:45:09 AM , Rating: 3
I've seen the exact same thing. Mom buying GTA for her 10 year old son at an EB in Toronto. These are the very same people who scream the loudest about violent video games. They want the government to control it because they lack common sense as a parent. There is the other extreme of the over-protective parent but that's another story for another time.

I'd like to hear the Pokemon story. I know animal rights groups were up in arms but "anti-semitic?"


RE: Must be a slow day in Mass...
By glitchc on 3/18/2008 10:38:40 AM , Rating: 2
It had to do with a Swastika which appeared on one of the Pokemon cards.