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 In an act of pushing for more accountability on the part of video games store proprietors, a bill is now pending approval over at the New York State Assembly which will prohibit the sale of explicit and violent video games to minors, as well as requiring proper labellings for such products.
Not surprisingly, the controversy regarding Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and its alleged negative impact on gamers, young and old alike, was raised as justification for the said proposal. An excerpt of the bill reads:
One of the videos at the center of the controversy is Grand Theft Auto: Vice City... Concern about violent video games is based upon the assumption that they contribute to aggression and violence among young players... scientific evidence shows a cause-effect relationship between television violence and aggression among children that watch it. Based upon this research, similar findings are expected concerning video games and these games are believed to have an even greater impact because:
1. children like to imitate the actions of characters such as the ones they play as or against in a video game,
2. video games include much repetition and with repetition comes a behavioral rehearsal for violent activity as violent games are played over and over again
, 3. rewards increase learning, and video games are based upon a reward system.
As for its impact on the proprietors, they will be required to affix a warning label to the package of such video games "to warn parents and/or guardians of violent content. Those games that necessitate the warning label but doesn't have it may be confiscated by the authorities, along with a fine slapped against the store owner.
Apart from this, the shop owner will also have to enforce restricted access to such games, like for example, storing them behind the counter and setting up a mechanism that will compel the purchaser to show their IDs to prove their age.
There's much to be said about this bill, but we will refrain from getting into that in this post. What's important is that you guys have been forewarned of what could possibly happen to New York retail stores if this bill gets passed.
To find out more about this bill, just click on the Read link below.
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