Gamertell

Just as there is no “I” in team or ice in hot tea, government legislation has little business trying to substitute the responsibility of parents with laws.

In an article by GameDaily, the New York state senate passed a video game bill, SO5888, sponsored by Senator Andrew Lanza (R-I, Staten Island), which seeks to:

“[E]stablish an Advisory Council on Interactive Media and Youth Violence to review the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating system and its effectiveness, as well as recommend further steps that can be taken “to curb children’s access and exposure to ‘adult-only’ material.“ “

This leads me to think that this is not as much an issue of free speech here as it is an insult to the efforts of the ESRB.

What happened to a little parental responsibility? The effectiveness of the ESRB’s rating system is determined by anyone who chooses to pay attention to it. Like the MPAA Rating System for Movies, the ESRB is a voluntary system set in place to help parents determine if the game is appropriate for their child, and the rating is right on the cover of the game. According to the NY Senate website, “there is no requirement that retailers place labels on video games sold in New York”, and that this bill would make it so every retailer “must have a clearly displayed rating indication on the game cover or elsewhere (such as on a website).“ But, again, has this not already been done by the ESRB? That’s like trying to push legislation forcing football players to use footballs during football games.

And what further raises my ire is the triple-referenced phrase, “crack down on video game violence” - like there’s some rampant epidemic of incidents for which video games were unequivocally responsible. How about cracking down on needless, redundant, money-wasting legislation? The only thing the press release stated that seems to be on the right track is found at the very bottom: “The program will also seek to increase awareness of the ratings system on games, and the importance of appropriate parental supervision.“ Well that wasn’t so hard, now was it?

GamePolitics.com, who, by my knowledge, originally covered the report on the passing of the bill adds that the rhetoric used by Sen. Lanza to help push this bill references the “controversial amateur game V-Tech Massacre (NOTE: Actually V-Tech Rampage), even though his legislation would have no effect at all on this non-industry, non-retail, non-rated, non-professional Flash game.“

This all begs the question: What are parents responsible for anymore? If not for monitoring the content of various media, including video games, movies, music and television that their children are exposed to, then what?

Parents, ask yourself this: Why is my child not exposed to violent or sexual media content? The answer will always be, “Because I won’t allow them to be exposed to said content.“

Some of you may feel inclined to suggest that children who want to play violent video games will play them without the parent’s knowledge, so I’ll offer this: Legislation doesn’t stop underage drunk driving; parents involved in their children’s lives and guardrails do. Let’s not forget that each of the new generation of consoles feature parental controls. You hear that Senator? Parental controls, not inane law controls. Not to mention the ESRB rating is announced at the end of every television commercial for a game. So instead of flapping your lips about how to ostracize a viable solution for stopping the sale of games to underage individuals as well as informing parents on video game content, let’s applaud and praise their efforts and recognize that the industry is capable of upholding those standards.

Read [GameDaily] Read Also [GamePolitics.com] Read Also [NY State Senate]

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