Comments on: A good idea, to a point: Fines for selling M-rated games to minors

Jack Thompson is back in the news with his contention that video game retailers should be fined if they sell M-rated games to minors. Believe it or not, Don Reisinger agrees.

First of all, there seems to be some confusion and this comes up every time the notion of videogame laws is discussed. In the USA there are NO laws against a child seeing an R-rated film. In the USA no medium has its ratings enforced by law.
Therefore, the question is why should videogames be an exception and why should they be singled out? The film industry ratings are self-regulated, so why shouldn't the videogame industry be able to do the same thing? To single out videogames would require a mountain of evidence. No such mountain exists. The vast majority of videogame "aggression" studies, such as those done by Iowa's Craig Anderson a vague and use poor science. (For example, in all the Anderson studies I've read he has never once defined what he means by "aggression.")

I'm not expert on constitutionality but I doubt this law will do anything even if it is constitutional. First, there is the question of whether or not ratings constitute advertising. Secondly,for the most part the stores do not air commercials or rent ad space. It is the game companies that do this. If the game company says that they won't sell the game to minors but the store does, then how can you fine the store if they didn't advertise that? Finally, the industry will just reword things saying that they will "attempt to refrain from selling these games to minors" or something equally lawyer-ish.

[potusag]

personally as a gamer i would detest this bill, for obvious reasons. but looking at it from another standpoint isn't this just another form of censorship? The games that kids buy should be decided by thier parents and not by the government. how can this be a way of building trust with your kid, if there is nothing to trust? what about minors? they have no say in matters that affect them most. why create laws that effect people that are completely misrepresented. these lawyers have absolutely no idea what it like to be a kid and yet they try and dictate what a minor can and cannot do.

why should we "shelter" our kids from violence so that they grow desperate from curiosity and find a way to play the game themselves. or should we allow them to play these games with our permission and be there to talk about how what happens in the game is wrong.

through the government laws kids have been learning at younger ages and thus becoming more mature. minors are learning at ages younger and younger the harshness of life yet we still try and shelter them from what? pixels? their tv? hasnt this gone a little overboard with all the censoring and debating? the old system was working, why try and replace it?

[revis750]

Jack Thompson is just as communist as the Chinese. His censorship views even made it in GAME INFORMER magazine.
When I was about 14 I played GTA & it didn?t spoil me at all?I am still a good person.
It is NOT the content that spoils kids. What spoils is if the kid plays all day & parents do their chores.

I am proud to say I played Grand Theft Auto when I was 13 or 14, even though my mom didn?t know at the time.

The ACLU better stop this one!