Massachusetts will consider legislation of ‘games-as-porn’ bill this week

The Massachusetts legislature will be holding a hearing on Tuesday regarding House Bill 1423. It is a video game law which was introduced last year but never got acted upon.

This “games as porn” bill will restrict minors from acquiring violent games under the same notion of them being restricted from pornographic materials. Find out more on this issue in the full article.

It seems that people have been filing bills left and right regarding violent games. On Tuesday, the Massachusetts legislature will be holding a hearing to consider House Bill 1423.

The main legislative sponsor for this is Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry. This bill closely resembles the video game law authored by Jack Thompson himself.

In this bill, the legislative department will try to restrict minors from getting their hands on violent video games under the same notion that minors are not allowed to buy sexually explicit material.

Simply put, what this bill is trying to do is classify violent games in the legal sense as pornography. Hence, this bill is also known as the “games-as-porn” bill. Here’s an excerpt from it:

Matter is harmful to minors if it is obscene or, if taken as a whole, itÂ… depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community, so as to appeal predominantly to the morbid interest in violence of minors;

is patently contrary to prevailing standards of adults in the county where the offense was committedÂ… and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors.

Do take note that the bill made by Jack Thompson was dropped due to the concerns on its constitutionality. Will HS1423 have the same fate since it was patterned from Thompson’s bill? We’ll just have to wait and see. Better keep your eyes glued on this space for updates.

Via Game Politics