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New game bill may turn retailers into felons |
Listed in: News, Titles Tags: Andrew Lanza, ESRB, New York, senator
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According to a report by GamePolitics, a new bill has been proposed by the Democratic side of New York's legislature. This report comes after the fact that another bill was passed earlier by the legislature of the same state, spearheaded by the Republicans of the Senate, specifically Senator Andrew Lanza.But probably the most significant issue that this news has raised is that if a retailer happens to sell or rent any game to inappropriately aged minors, that same retailer would be committing a felony - a class E felony. An excerpt of the proposal goes:
1.) selling or renting to a minor a game which includes “depraved violence and indecent images” would be a class E felony under the state penal code
The bill refers to "depraved" as depictions of "rape, dismemberment, physical torture, mutilation or evisceration of a human being." The proposed bill, called A08696, goes further to iterate that each new game console should integrate a parental control mechanism. It defines this mechanism as:
Â…a mechanism, device or control system that allows an owner, through the use of a personal identification number, password or similar technology, to prevent the display of video games, or portions thereof containing certain contentÂ…
And that's not all. According to a section of the proposal, the state attorney general will be granted the authority to petition the court for an injunction blocking further sales of any console not meeting this requirement. And yes, it's specifically targeted at consoles, not PCs or handhelds.
The proposal also suggests the formation of a council, dubbed "Advisory Council on Interactive Media and Youth Violence," to monitor and evaluate research on interactive media, "violent behavior among children," and review the ESRB system. Furthermore, it says:
4.) The measure contains a severability clause, which states that if any portion of the proposed law is found to be unconstitutional, such a ruling would not invalidate the other sections.
This new bill was proposed by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol and co-sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, and Assemblywoman Audrey Pheffer. There are even talks that the new proposal is currently favored by Governor Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat. And if he does pass and sign the law in the state, it will go into effect in 120 days.
Via Game Politics
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Jack Thompson needs to go get laid.
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you can all complain all you want but keep the parents out of it cause if these blows up and headlines such as "PARENTS TO BLAME FOR...." starts appearing...
there goes your game console...
WHAT THE HECK LET'S BLOW THIS THING UP!!!! COULDN'T CARE LESS ABOUT ALL THEM KIDS ONLINE ANYWAY!!!
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i was a kid once and honestly i wouldn't blame my parents for things THAT I GET AWAY with...
for the retailers, console makers, game developers... there's nothing wrong about trying to be more responsible in your money-earning endeavors...
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You dont sell a kid alcohol for fear of jail time, and a violent video game should be the same.
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It does come down to the parents...if their willing to buy that game for their child then their almost certainly willing to provide the code to allow the child to play it. Or even better...who's planning on setting up this parental control code? Nowaday's most "irresponsible" parents (which are the ones who were talking about here) wouldn't have the first clue how to setup a console so it's more than likely the 12 year old who's actually creating the password...perhaps he's doing it to save his parents innocence so their not affected by the scenes of depravity.
Honestly this is a face saving gesture nothing else...it's like trying to block a 10 year old from seeing Porn on the net...sure you can set up blocks but if he's determined he'll get to it anyway.
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Right, and the PSP, Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 definitely have Parental controls built in already.
Do these people even know what systems they're talking about?
They'll probably reply: "Uh... the Super Nintendo?"
I'm okay with this though, but I just had to point that stupidity out. xD
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