New US bill proposes health labels regarding video game violence for game cases

3/23/12 9:00pm

Politics and video game share an interesting relationship. There are company lawsuits; there are cases about censorship... In fact, a United States Supreme Court case (Brown vs. EMA) involving video game violence and sale restrictions based on age was held less than a year ago. The case was ruled in the favor of video games, and during the cases, points illustrating the lack of causative evidence of a link between video game violence and aggressive behavior were shown. Recent studies have also shown this, such as with these two examples.

Despite this, a few politicians continue to believe otherwise. While there was previously an attempt by an Oklahoma State Representative to introduce a bill that would tax games rated teen or higher, this more recent one does something more visually noticeable.

Titled the The Violence in Video Games Labeling Act, this bill was collaboratively proposed by Virginia Representative Frank Wolf and California Representative Joe Baca. Should it be passed, it would require large health warnings to be posted on the cases of video games. Not only would this apply to mature rated games, but it would even apply to video games with an E for everyone content rating, including titles that feature no noticeable violence at all. The required game case warning would be as follows:

"'WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior.''

Frank Wolf, one of the involved representatives, provided his reasoning for introducing the bill, which he explained as follows:

"Just as we warn smokers of the health consequences of tobacco, we should warn parents - and children - about the growing scientific evidence demonstrating a relationship between violent video games and violent behavior."

Rich Taylor, the senior vice president of the Entertainment Software Association (which was involved with the recent Supreme Course case), had this sophisticated statement to give in response:

"Numerous medical experts, research authorities, and courts across the country, including the United States Supreme Court, exhaustively reviewed the research Representative Baca uses to base his bill and found it lacking and unpersuasive. Independent scientific researchers found no causal connection between video games and real life violence."

But who knows, maybe the passing of this bill would be a good thing. Parents need to know about the mentally destructive nature of harmful games like Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster. Joking aside, of course it's important for parents to be aware of what types of mediums their child is observing or interacting with in their lives, but is a scientifically inaccurate bill like this the way to do it?

» Source: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2012-03-20-u-s-bill-wants-cigarette-style-warning-labels-on-violent-games
» Tagged In: #Brown v. EMA, #community showcase, #Entertainment Software Association, #g1news, #health labels, #politics, #video game violence, #Violent Video Games

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g1 DISCUSSIONS

E-GAG101

March 23, 2012 - 11:00pm

This stuff is absolute bull-crap, I mean come on, if they can't even prove these studies these people are basically putting lies on the cases of our games

soulsilver2010

March 23, 2012 - 11:01pm

In other news, there has been a mass exodus to Canada from the United States today.

MaDdOg99

March 23, 2012 - 10:59pm

Can you say "Bullshit"?

xxn00bdudexx

March 23, 2012 - 10:21pm

The people who make these bills most likely have not even PLAYED a vdeo game in there entire lives. So why even try to pass these bill if you do not even entirely know what it is?

MaxusFox23

March 23, 2012 - 10:11pm

Why the goverment always has to blame video-games about the russian roullette called "human mind"? If a kid turns aggressive after playing a violent video-game, fault goes to who? Not to the game, but to the kid and, in some or most of the cases, the parents for letting their kid to be exposed to that content. I mean COME ON, how long this debate has been going for, ever since Columbine? You really have to make a law because parents can't make good jugdement about what their kids are playing? The answer: NO, YOU ENCOURAGE 3 TIMES MORE THE PARENTS TO ALWAYS CHECK THE GAME FIRST, EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO BANG THEIR HEADS AGAINST A WALL! I even once asked my mother: "Why you never forbbid us to play Mortal Kombat or Doom since they were, uh... pretty violent?" "Because you and your siblings never showed any aggressive behavior, so I just let it be". Of course, as I said, that's not everyone's case.

Lazera

March 23, 2012 - 10:05pm

If the government is stupid enough to make such a law, then they need to add all of these disclaimers to every form of media; Movies, Music, Books, Art.

This should definitely been applied to The Scream. "Warning: This photo may cause depression or even death".

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f4/The_Scream.jpg

Double-T

March 23, 2012 - 10:03pm

This is no different from the ESRB, in the end it comes down to the parent knowing about what they are buying, and what their kids are playing.

Captshiro

March 23, 2012 - 9:53pm

labels are fine if they are actually true like smoking

Evil Ivan

March 23, 2012 - 9:53pm

I question whether Congress can even do this under the Commerce Clause, but proper constitutional interpretation is out of vogue. Washington has done whatever the fuck they've wanted for decades now.

Our States have considerably greater latitude to enact such laws. Even so, there's no legitimate moral interest here. The "science" has yielded bupkis.

LimeCatMaster

March 23, 2012 - 9:50pm

I think this is a good idea. While we're at it, it's been shown that movies, books, and music do the same. So movies should have a warning accompanying them, the same for CDs and book covers.

But wait - we can't do that. Because if we did, then there would be outrage over "censorship". Double-standards, ahoy!