You can’t legislate morality
May 9th, 2002 10:33 am

California congressman Joe Baca wants to make it a federal crime to rent or sell video games showing violence, prostitution and drug use to anyone under the age of 17 without parental consent.

Representatives of the video game industry and a leading retailer call the bill unnecessary and question its legal standing under the United States Constitution’s free-speech provisions.

H.R. 4645 covers eight kinds of explicit in-game depictions, including scenes of

  • decapitation and dismemberment
  • murder
  • car jackings
  • illegal drug use
  • rape
  • prostitution
  • assault and other violent crimes

Grand Theft Auto III is a target of this bill. The game shows carjacking, violence against police, drive-by shootings and pedestrians being struck by run away cars.

German lawmakers are debating violence on television and in video games after a 19-year-old student shot dead 16 people at his former school and then killed himself.

I can understand why lawmakers are concerned. They get enough murder and drug use on the nightly news, as well as seeing enough rape in the Catholic Church and prostitution from our congress in the form of “interns.” Why expose kids to this type of behavior in the made-up fantasy world of games when they can see the real thing in their supposed “role models?”

Also at heart is the argument that kids are influenced by video games. People tried to argue that Columbine was brought about by Doom. I guess angst ridden, lonely teenagers who didn’t get attention from their parents had nothing to do with it.

SimCity has been one of the biggest selling games of all times. Which explains where there are tens of thousands of kids entering college as Political Science majors so they can run for mayor of their city. Oh, but that’s not happening, being that Generation X and Generation Y are the least politically active groups in the history of the U.S. I can only gather the reason kids aren’t flocking to architecture and politics is because they aren’t fucking influenced by video games.

More kids are participating in backyard wrestling than any video game associated activity. The only thing video games are doing is making our kids fat when they spend 800 hours a week on the couch trying to beat Timmy’s high score.

Posted in General by Mark
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Taranis
May 9th, 2002 3:02 pm

You don’t see me shooting bombs at incoming nuclear missiles all the time, even though Missile Command was my secret friend years ago.

Cosbysweater
May 10th, 2002 10:39 am

You guys are so wrong. Why just yesterday, I had an uncontrollable urge to hop across the local highway.

Fyre Knight
May 11th, 2002 1:01 pm

“The courts have finally decided what every parent already knows - that video games containing ultra violent depictions of murder, rape, and assault have no place in the hands of our children,” Baca said

Rape? Um, no. Last I checked there hasn’t ever been a game created that you rape an NPC. I love these senators who have no fucking clue what they are talking about. The fact that they run the country is what is distressing, not the fact that there is violence in games.

Cosbytanktop
May 14th, 2002 2:42 pm

Don’t look now, but Sony is making it cheaper for kids to play video games and thus deteriorate into a state of ignorant juvenile delinquency.

tim jennens
November 4th, 2002 12:00 pm

i blieve research has been done showing a connection btween these games and rape and violence.

Taryn
December 4th, 2002 4:42 pm

Frye Knight said, “Rape? Um, no. Last I checked there hasn’t ever been a game created that you rape an NPC. I love these senators who have no fucking clue what they are talking about. The fact that they run the country is what is distressing, not the fact that there is violence in games”

I understand that there are actually several games that have been made where someone rapes an NPC. Custer’s revenge just to name one. I find it interesting that he slams senators for not knowing what they are talking about, then posts false information as truth. Hmmmm.

Game
January 30th, 2003 2:11 pm

Taryn said, “I understand that there are actually several games that have been made where someone rapes an NPC. Custer’s revenge just to name one. I find it interesting that he slams senators for not knowing what they are talking about, then posts false information as truth. Hmmmm.”

Custer’s revenge? The game was made by independent sectors of the gaming industry, whom quit Atari in the first place. You would actually put a label on the entire gaming industry based on the independent sectors? That’s stupid. And besides, a game like that would probably force the retail chains not to carry it in the first place, which would make Baca’s bill useless. I’m not saying there are no games today based on sex, but you don’t find those games here in the US. Only in Japan (and surprisingly, Japan’s assult rate is MUCH lower than the US’s rate).

I do agree with Fyre Knight, in that it seems like these lawmakers have no idea what they’re talking about. Baca states that “The courts have finally decided what every parent already knows….” Courts? First, the court he cites is only ONE court. Second, every other court (many courts) have ruled that video games are protected speech and children can have access to them. Also, this ONE court’s decision is under appeal, so before long, it will be many courts vs. no court, victory for the video game industry.

Doesn’t Baca and his supporters realize that regulation of speech and expression, in particular, when it comes to young people, is exactly how Nazi Germany began???

A20AxemRed
February 25th, 2003 2:12 pm

What you all are missing is this: fourteen and fifteen year olds might have thier moralities straight, but too often, much less mature nine and ten year olds are playing these games. THIS is where it get’s bad. If they’ve grown up with this sort of exposure, THAT’S where the problems start to lie, that’s where moral lines become blurry, and that’s where criminal minds might be grown. Granted, I’ve seen no games with rape, but it’s not like there wont be any ever, and when or if it does, this law will be inclusive. Also, the regulation up to age Seventeen might not be entirely justified, but it is to adhere to the ESRB’s recomendations, so further debate will be taken care of.