California Conservative

But it won’t keep 25 to Life off the streets.

S.F. Chronicle reports: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Friday that will ban the sale or rental of especially violent video games to children, setting up a legal showdown with the $25 billion industry.”

The game industry, which said it would sue to strike down the law, opposed the bill, along with the California Chamber of Commerce and other business groups with close ties to the governor.

Looks like Arnold isn’t catering to special interests.

AB1179 by Assemblyman Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, bans the sale or rental of especially violent video games to children under 18 years old unless there is parental approval. It takes effect Jan. 1.

Schwarzenegger said it was important to protect children and allow parents to control what their children see and play with.

“This bill gets the parents involved in the decision-making process,” the governor said. “I am a parent myself, and I think it is extremely important that we know what our kids are watching or what kinds of games they play.”

Schwarzenegger is featured in video games based on his “Terminator” movies, which has raised questions about his willingness to regulate the industry. It’s not clear whether the “Terminator” games will be considered ultraviolent under the legislation.

The governor said at a bill-signing ceremony that as an actor he always believed in the movie-ratings system, which lets parents know the content of movies.

As we explored in our recent report of 25 to Life: A Clear and Present Danger, the current rating system doesn’t give parents a full idea of the violence, vulgarity and base behavior depicted by some games. Just the soundtrack alone could be enough reason to keep it out of children’s hands. Unless extreme profanity and hate-speech is considered educational.

Ultraviolent is defined in the law as a game that depicts serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious or cruel. The video games most often show violence in the first-person, meaning the person playing the game is committing the action.

“Unlike movies, where you passively watch violence, in a video game you are the active participant and making decisions on who to stab, maim, burn or kill,” said Yee, who is also a child psychologist. “As a result, these games serve as learning tools that have a dramatic impact on our children.”

“Learning tools,” exactly. And so what can children and young adults learn from killing people as a game?

Matters not. The self-interested game lobbyists are quick to respond:

Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, said in a statement that politicians in California put politics over the First Amendment.

“AB1179 is punitive against retailers, will waste limited taxpayer dollars, and when it is struck down by the courts, as has been the fate of similar statutes, parents will be no better off for this effort to damage one of the state’s fastest-growing and most exciting industries that is providing some of the most compelling entertainment in the world today,” Lowenstein said.

The law will assess a fine on retailers who violate the act by selling a marked game to a minor in an amount up to $1,000 for each violation. It will be up to the manufacturer and distributor of the games to make sure that they are designated for adult sale only.

Stores would not be fined if the manufacturer failed to properly label the game.

There is no state enforcement of the law. Any suspected violation may be reported to a city or county attorney or district attorney by an adult acting on behalf of a minor who is allowed to buy or rent a violent game. The local officials can then prosecute the violation.

Without enforcement any law is meaningless.

Parents need to wake up and speak out on this matter.

Until they do, it’ll just be business as usual and people wondering why youth is becoming more violent and criminally-inclined. They’re just playing games.

RELATED:
25 To Life: A Clear And Present Danger
25 To Life: STOP THE RELEASE

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 8th, 2005 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Activism, Arnold, California, Crime, Culture, Youth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.