Politicians Wising up on Game Legislation?
via /.
Ars Technica looks at recent failures to pass laws regulating the sales of violent video games. They ask whether politicians are finally wising up to First Amendment issues and the costs associated with lawsuits resulting from the laws. Recent attempts to pass video game legislation in Mississippi, Utah, and Indiana have either failed or been put on indefinite hold. 'Now, state lawmakers are more cognizant of the constitutionality issues at stake. The judicial landscape is littered with the charred husks of laws passed by Illinois, Washington, Michigan, California, Louisiana, and others. All of them tried in some way or another to regulate the sale of violent video games to children, and all of them were struck down on First Amendment grounds.
Video Game Age Restriction Laws: 1st Amendment Violation or Profit Protection?
My opinion has always been that the video game industry has been suing over these laws to protect their profits and they are using and abusing the First Amendment to cover their rear ends. Think about it, they would probably lose big bucks if all of the stores were forced to card people for M rated video games. 72% of my local GameStop's profits are from underage kids walking or riding bikes to the Shopping Center where the GameStop is at to buy whatever they wanted to buy? You know whey they do that? Because parents don't have the time anymore to take their kids everywhere they want to go.
Ben