Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to decide the fate of a bill that could make it illegal to sell violent games to minors in the state of California. Arnie has until Saturday night to either allow the bill to pass or prevent it from coming into effect. The effect of the bill would be to prohibit the sale of "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel" games to people under the age of 18. The possible penalty for breaching this would be a fine of $1,000.
Previous attempts to implement such legislation in other states have failed, in part due to lobbying by the Entertainment Software Association and the Video Software Dealers Association. A spokeswoman for the ESA stated that "we think this is an effort by legislators to usurp the role of parents".
In the UK this kind of fine has existed for years, but has never caused any kind of controversy. Shops that sell games also sell DVDs so therefore they understand policies for selling games to minors. In our interview with a representative from the BBFC, they stated that retailers were generally very professional when it came to deciding whether or not to sell games to people that looked under-age. Which begs the question, is this more a parental problem than one that retailers need to think about?
[Via Gameinsider]
