Illinois traps game retailers - don't sell adult stuff to minors, but we won't tell you what adult means

So they've gone and done it. Politicians from both sides of the fence have decided to put the burden of protecting our youth from "adult" games squarely on the shoulders of the retailer. The law, just voted in by the state house, now moves to the senate for final approval. Since it's the governor's bill, you can be sure it'll get signed.

The main problem with the law is that it leaves the definition of "adult content" to the retailer. Theoretically, this means that a retailer could follow the ESRB rating system and sell a game that the ESRB considers okay for kids. But what if an adult finds the content of that game questionable?

Here's an example. If a SpongeBob game was sold to a minor and a parent thought it was "promoting homosexuality" (you all heard about that nonsense, right?) then a retailer could be accused of selling adult content to a minor. This isn't far-fetched. In fact, it's likely.

Nice job, Illinois politicians. You just managed to make it that much harder on your local businesses, with no payoff for anyone but your own re-election campaigns.