Joseph Lentol: put retailers to jail for selling M-rated games to minors

Being an uninformed politician seems to be the trend in the modern world. Those in black suits and neckties would go around bashing violence in video games with all sorts of allegations they can come up with. Just recently, New York assemblyman Joseph Lentol jumped into the bandwagon. Our newcomer to the conspirators against video games made a bill that would put retailers to jail for selling M-rated games to minors.

As if that wasn’t enough, the A08696 bill also casts doubts over ESRB. Following this would create an “Advisory Council on Interactive Media and Youth Violence” to judge ratings labeled on games. Retailers will be axed if they sell games that show “depraved violence and indecent images.” This means no “rape, dismemberment, physical torture, mutilation, or evisceration of a human being.”

Lentol goes all out with his mighty bill by making it mandatory for game consoles to have parental controls. The thing is, we know that the major consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) already have parental controls.

Entertainment Merchants Association President Bo Andersen strongly contested the bill he deems “ill-conceived and unconstitutional.” According to him, such law is made out of ignorance since nine proposals similar to it have been rejected before. Not only is it asking for something that’s already there (retailers can’t sell M-rated games to minors and consoles have parental controls), it’s also vague.

It won’t be pretty easy to determine which game depicts “depraved violence and indecent images.” If this becomes a law, our game selling comrades would be in a pinch. Let’s just hope justice prevails and this bill joins its nine predecessors.

Via IGN

Being an uninformed politician seems to be the trend in the modern world. Those in black suits and neckties would go around bashing violence in video games with all sorts of allegations they can come up with. Just recently, New York assemblyman Joseph Lentol jumped into the bandwagon. Our newcomer to the conspirators against video games made a bill that would put retailers to jail for selling M-rated games to minors.

As if that wasn’t enough, the A08696 bill also casts doubts over ESRB. Following this would create an “Advisory Council on Interactive Media and Youth Violence” to judge ratings labeled on games. Retailers will be axed if they sell games that show “depraved violence and indecent images.” This means no “rape, dismemberment, physical torture, mutilation, or evisceration of a human being.”

Lentol goes all out with his mighty bill by making it mandatory for game consoles to have parental controls. The thing is, we know that the major consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) already have parental controls.

Entertainment Merchants Association President Bo Andersen strongly contested the bill he deems “ill-conceived and unconstitutional.” According to him, such law is made out of ignorance since nine proposals similar to it have been rejected before. Not only is it asking for something that’s already there (retailers can’t sell M-rated games to minors and consoles have parental controls), it’s also vague.

It won’t be pretty easy to determine which game depicts “depraved violence and indecent images.” If this becomes a law, our game selling comrades would be in a pinch. Let’s just hope justice prevails and this bill joins its nine predecessors.

Via IGN