A group of California politicians has approved a bill that would make it a crime for game
retailers to sell or rent games to minors. In a press conference earlier this week, the bill's sponsor, Leland Yee
(D-San Francisco), said, "These video games teach our children how to kill, how to maim, how to hurt people; women,
minorities, poor people. These are not the lessons that we should be teaching our children."
"Clearly the video game industry is not concerned with the welfare of our children, and thus it is imperative that we step in to prevent the sale of these harmful games to our children," he told the AP, according to Gamedaily.
Though them's fightin' words to many in the game industry, it's probably too early in the bill's progress to worry because others just like it have been shot down as unconstitutional violations of free speech.
To be fair, some studies have shown that children who consume more violent media tend to exhibit more aggressive behaviors. Children are masters of mimicry, and they will attempt to mimic on-screen violence (be it filmed, hand-drawn, or rendered). But hey, consumption of sugar and caffeine surely have the same effect.
The real question is whether it's necessary to criminalize game retailers for enforcing restrictions on game sales to minors when many retailers are already voluntarily doing so. Gamedaily quoted Hal Halpin, president of the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) as saying, "the IEMA member companies have just recently implemented nation-wide carding policies in an effort to inhibit the sale of M-rated games to minors, rendering [this] and similarly redundant pieces of legislation wholly unnecessary and a frivolous and irresponsible waste of taxpayer resources."
See also: Bill Passes, retailers must post ratings and Gov. Schwarzenegger signs ESRB regulations into law.
