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Bill Would Restrict Children's Access to Violent Video Games

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 October 2005, 21:00 CDT

By William Finn Bennett, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Oct. 4--Interactive video games with titles like "Crisis Zone,""Police 911," and "Silent Scope EX" lined the walls of a local arcade last week.

All three games carried warning labels that read: "Lifelike violence, strong."

Above a pretend rifle equipped with a high-powered scope, a teaser for one of the games read: "Bring him down with one shot."

Current law does not restrict children's access to such games, which are prevalent in local arcades and video rental shops. But a bill now sitting on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk would change all that. By Oct. 9, he must either veto or sign into law Assembly Bill 1179, which would outlaw the sale or rental of games labeled "violent" to minors.

The bill also would require that all video games be labeled for violent content.

Already approved by the state Senate and Assembly, the bill is generating plenty of controversy, with children's advocacy groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Girl Scouts of America lining up to support its passage and a First Amendment rights group and industry groups opposing it.

Democrats are cranking up the pressure on Schwarzenegger to approve the legislation.

In a news release last week, bill author and Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, urged the governor to sign it, writing that "the Legislature has spoken loud and clear that we want to give parents this tool to help raise healthy kids."

The bill has received strong bipartisan support. The final version of the bill was approved by the Assembly in September by a 65 to seven vote.

But game industry leaders and free speech advocates say the bill would violate the First Amendment and would not reduce the amount of violence that teenagers see.

Two young men outside a North County video arcade last week criticized the proposed law as futile and misguided.

Justin Kasper, 24, called the bill a waste of time.

"I don't think it makes any difference ---- they see that kind of stuff on TV anyway," Kasper said, adding that he sees young children playing the games in the video arcade all the time.

His friend Mitchell McCann, 22, agreed.

"Kids see (violence) everywhere," he said.

"It's more (of a) parents' job," Kasper said. "They should take more interest in their kids, get involved."

Some of the games are extremely violent, Kasper added. In one game, "you rip their heads off and their whole spine comes out."

Kasper said he thinks those who oppose children playing the games are blowing things out of proportion.

"It's not like you want to do it just because you see it," he said, adding that he has been playing such video games since he was in his early teens.

Escondido video store owner Terry Moga, 58, said he was incensed over the proposed legislation.

"I'm totally against it; they can regulate all they want, (but) how are they going to regulate me? ---- stand at the door and see who I'm renting to?" Moga asked.

He said that instead of trying to pass more laws, society needs to examine how parents are raising their children.

He said that as a responsible businessman, he asks parents if they have any objections to their children renting violent video games.

"If not, we rent to the kids; we don't try to regulate (them) ---- we leave that to parents," Moga said.

Free speech advocates say regulating the rights granted under the First Amendment should only be done with extreme care.

"We need to be extremely cautious of carving out exceptions to the First Amendment," said David Greene, executive director of the Oakland-based First Amendment Project, a nonprofit group that advocates for free speech.

He said one of the reasons so many guarantees in the First Amendment are extended to adolescents is because as a society, we are trying to teach children how to begin to exercise their democratic rights.

"By restricting those rights, we are handicapping them," Greene said. "At some point, these young people are going to have to function as adults in our society."

A game industry association called the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association strongly opposes the bill. In a September news release, association president Hal Halprin stated that companies that are members of the association already restrict the sale of such games to minors and the proposed law "is clearly unconstitutional."

"Time and again courts have uniformly held that video games, just like books, movies and music are expression that is fully protected by the First Amendment," Halprin stated in the news release.

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To see more of the North County Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.nctimes.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: North County Times

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