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CNN misses the point on gaming law
Is proposed federal legislation a hindrance to parents or a help?
Kevin L. Kitchens [Feedback]
May 9, 2002
CNN's (or CNNMoney's) latest Game Over column deals with a proposed bill in the U.S. House of Representatives called "The Protect Children from Video Game Sex and Violence Act of 2002". The author (of the article), Chris Morris, goes on to discuss how bad this bill would be for gaming and apparently for freedom.
The bill essentially makes it a felony for stores to sell or rent violent videogames to anyone under 18. Since most games with the questionable content are rated M (for Mature), by the ESRB, this would be pretty simple for stores to enforce. In fact, as we discussed in this February 2002 article, many stores already require ID checks to purchase M-rated material.
In the article Morris makes the comment:
Solving that problem remains troublesome, but the movie industry's enforcement of the "R" rating is a good model. It's an entirely voluntary system, but one that publisher (the studios) and distributor (the theaters) have agreed to. Kids slip through, sure, but that's going to happen in any situation where you're trying to deny them access to something.
So, because the movie industry is using a flawed system, we should model every other system after it? Frankly, the movie industry's volunteer system has not worked. Kids do sneak in or are simply allowed to buy tickets to R-rated movies without their parents. The solution is to fix the movie system, not knock other systems down to that same poor standard.
Society has deemed certain products to be adults-only. Cigarettes, alcohol, and pornography to name a few. R-rated movies (sans an attending parent) are in the same boat. We have laws in place that make it a crime to sell booze and porn to minors – the same thing should be in effect (and enforced) for M-rated games and certain movies.
Morris also states:
Let's, for the moment, leave aside the obvious argument that the decision to allow children to play these games lies with the parent – and the government has no right to dictate how parents raise their children.
This bill has absolutely NOTHING to do with infringing upon the parents’ decision to let their child play these games. In fact, it enforces it by requiring the parent to consciously make the purchase for their child. This then IS the parent making the decision. The current unenforced system exposes far too many loopholes preventing parents from controlling what their children are playing. Parents can and should police what comes into their homes – and this bill encourages that – but making it harder for kids to get around their parents’ wishes is not part of the problem, it’s part of the solution.
Yes, kids will be kids. Yes, kids will make mistakes. Yes, kids will sneak and break the rules. However, just because kids will do something doesn’t mean that we suddenly have to drop all values and endorse and encourage them to do so. By this logic, people are going to steal, so we should just make theft legal. By this line of reasoning, since people have been murdering since Cain killed Abel, we might as well remove the stigma attached to it (which of course we have begun by legalizing abortion and euthanasia).
I’ve heard Mr. Morris’ so-called "logic" before. However it is usually from teens themselves or adults who don’t have kids of their own. If Mr. Morris is a parent, hopefully he’s got the sense to not practice what he preaches. For his kids' sake.
Society sets the standards and people either rise to them or sink beneath them and endure the consequences. In this day of gray, we need to get back to black and white – right and wrong. People choose to do right or do wrong. We need to stop trying to shift the standard so that everything is labeled “right”. If I decree that six-inches = a foot, it doesn’t really make me 12-feet tall, does it? By an objective standard, I’m still six-feet, no matter what I pretend.
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