Wednesday, January 14th 2009
Rep. Baca Introduces Legislation to Make Violent Video Games Sold With Health Warning
Today, Congressman Joe Baca (D-Rialto) introduced legislation that mandates all video games with an Electronics Software Ratings Board (ESRB) rating of Teen (T) or higher be sold with a health warning label. The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009 creates a new rule within the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which forces games with a T rating or higher to be sold with a simple warning label, reading: "WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior."
"The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families, and to consumers - to inform them of the potentially damaging content that is often found in their products," said Rep. Baca. "They have repeatedly failed to live up to this responsibility. Meanwhile research continues to show a proven link between playing violent games and increased aggression in young people. American families deserve to know the truth about these potentially dangerous products."
Rep. Baca has been a lead advocate in Congress on the issues of violence and sex in the media. In particular, he has been very active in ensuring the video game industry accurately details the content of its games to parents and consumers. Recent scientific studies from the Pediatrics Journal, University of Indiana, University of Missouri, and Michigan State University all point to a neurological link between playing violent video games and aggressive behavior in children and teenagers.
"We must hold the video game industry accountable and do everything in our power to ensure parents are aware of the detrimental effects that violent games can have before making decisions on which games are appropriate for their children to play," concluded Rep. Baca. "I am proud to introduce the Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009, and am hopeful my legislation can work to stop the growing influence of violent media on America's children and youth."
Source:
House.gov
"The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families, and to consumers - to inform them of the potentially damaging content that is often found in their products," said Rep. Baca. "They have repeatedly failed to live up to this responsibility. Meanwhile research continues to show a proven link between playing violent games and increased aggression in young people. American families deserve to know the truth about these potentially dangerous products."
Rep. Baca has been a lead advocate in Congress on the issues of violence and sex in the media. In particular, he has been very active in ensuring the video game industry accurately details the content of its games to parents and consumers. Recent scientific studies from the Pediatrics Journal, University of Indiana, University of Missouri, and Michigan State University all point to a neurological link between playing violent video games and aggressive behavior in children and teenagers.
"We must hold the video game industry accountable and do everything in our power to ensure parents are aware of the detrimental effects that violent games can have before making decisions on which games are appropriate for their children to play," concluded Rep. Baca. "I am proud to introduce the Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009, and am hopeful my legislation can work to stop the growing influence of violent media on America's children and youth."
91 Comments on Rep. Baca Introduces Legislation to Make Violent Video Games Sold With Health Warning
But I still think Psych evals should be as common as physicals just to make sure nobody is losing their grip on reality to stop it before it gets too late. I think video games and movies have nothing to do with these conditions. If your child is crazy enough to kill people over a videogame, that child was crazy before playing the videogame. ;)
And of course let him play Halo 3. :laugh:
He approached his parents and told them to close their eyes because he was going to give them a present, when they did that he pulled a pistol from the back of his pants and shot them point blank in the head, his mom fell dead right away then he putted the pistol in his father hand to make it as if the father did it and commit suicide but somehow the father survived the ordeal and told the police everything.
The bottom line is that the kid was a crazy teen, games didn't kill his mom, he did it.
I'm disgusted at the possibility that games may begin being censored though, seems significantly like a dystopia to me, there's enough cr*p wrong with the UK as it is.
Ref Solaris' post, if you restrict something more and more people will be driven underground more and more, this will then lead to the violence in the games being greater and unregulated.
Honestly I believe you do benefit from playing games (well, online ones anyway) since you will undoubtedly join communities and become friends of sorts with people, hell I met Ben Clarke playing TF2 and I'm now hosting a podcast with him and another guy we met who's one of the community admins, I also wouldn't have even thought about buying my desktop if I hadn't needed some decent hardware to run games on, it's now opened up a bunch of possibilities for me like investigating linux and widening my knowledge of computers in general.
Well, here we go again......
Patriot Acts 1 and 2 has already taken away much of our freedoms to begin with in the US. This democrat is clearly trying to appease the religous groups with this piece of legislation to earn him votes. Lets not make the same mistakes again with what we are allowed to buy aswell.
Both the republicans and the democrats should quit taking rights away and start giving them back. Both parties are to blame really. Patriot acts were made out of fear and abuse of power and the same with legislation on who can buy certain videogames. Its sad when special interest groups have our country in their pockets. :(
this has nothing to do with republicans, democrats, or the patriot acts, this rather has to do with people pointing the finger at everything but the real source of the problem. in the last two posts, you have become as bad as the politicians supporting this bill. rather than point the finger at the parents(the real source), they point it at the games.
EDIT:
in the US, we have freedom of press(which is what video games fall under), yet we still have rampant censorship. i do agree with not selling certain games to the young and impressionable, but censorship has gotten out of hand as of late. to not allow the game to be sold at all or to have certain content removed is against our bill of rights, and i feel like i'm the only one that realizes this.
I started eating peanut butter and banana sandwiches since 9/11 and we haven't been attacked again yet. But it doesn't mean me doing so prevented another attack if you get the concept.
When you fear an outside threat you shouldn't hand over any freedoms to the people in charge because that is weak minded.
But this thread is about video games legislation. Fearing your children will do bad things when introduced to the stress of a simulated world really makes you wonder....... what will these same kids do under greater stress that we find in the real world?
Its the parents duty to make sure the child is mentally prepared to take on the real world. Most parents barely talk to their children so when serious issues come up a small percentage of kids freak out... its more than video games, its the real world that threatens them much more. :toast:
This is one of those Democratic/Republican things. Sorry I value my life more than being randomly checked for being a terrorist. Just because I am an American doesn't mean I'm not a terrorist. Considering the Supreme Court hasn't thrown it out as unconstitutional, look at it as a necessary evil. We'll never agree on this issue.
if violance in games=violance in real life then i been missing out on something, been playing violant games since computer/consol games first appeared and i have yet to shoot anybody.....ok ok, once but that was with a .22 pelet gun and he was being an ass.....
these people all need to be shiped someplace they can start a country to their standerds in other words, no violance, no sex, no obscene language/gestures/thoughts........
BAKA!!!!