Minors Get $25 Fine for Adult Games
It seems like the “inappropriate games bill” is becoming a trend in legislation nowadays. The Minnesota House of Representatives is the newest state to join the bandwagon and has passed its own bill for inappropriate games. The Minnesota state followed suit after states such as Oklahoma, Florida, California, and Illinois filed such bills against inappropriate games.
In Minnesota’s case, the bill was introduced by Rep. Jeff Johnson (Republican) and is tagged as HF 1298. The bill requires retail outlets to put up signs explaining the ESRB ratings and just to put a new twist on it, instead of fining the retailers for selling M or AO ESRB rated games, they will be imposing a $25 fine on the minor buying it.
Another representative, Barb Goodwin, unsuccessfully tried to amend the bill by also imposing fines on the retailers on the grounds that they should be the ones responsible for selling those games since they should be the most knowledgeable about ESRB ratings.
Nearly all the bills has been overturned by heeding the First Amendment. According to Representative Johnson, “we were trying to pass the narrowest bill possible just to try something different from a constitutional challenge standpoint…There are two potential constitutional problems. One is that we are using the ESRB ratings… The other piece is that so far no court has found a strong enough link (between game violence and youth violence).”
It seems like the “inappropriate games bill” is becoming a trend in legislation nowadays. The Minnesota House of Representatives is the newest state to join the bandwagon and has passed its own bill for inappropriate games. The Minnesota state followed suit after states such as Oklahoma, Florida, California, and Illinois filed such bills against inappropriate games.
In Minnesota’s case, the bill was introduced by Rep. Jeff Johnson (Republican) and is tagged as HF 1298. The bill requires retail outlets to put up signs explaining the ESRB ratings and just to put a new twist on it, instead of fining the retailers for selling M or AO ESRB rated games, they will be imposing a $25 fine on the minor buying it.
Another representative, Barb Goodwin, unsuccessfully tried to amend the bill by also imposing fines on the retailers on the grounds that they should be the ones responsible for selling those games since they should be the most knowledgeable about ESRB ratings.
Nearly all the bills has been overturned by heeding the First Amendment. According to Representative Johnson, “we were trying to pass the narrowest bill possible just to try something different from a constitutional challenge standpoint…There are two potential constitutional problems. One is that we are using the ESRB ratings… The other piece is that so far no court has found a strong enough link (between game violence and youth violence).”
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