Law and Society: Health and Science

Due to the heavy violence in video games in todays world people are questioning if school shootings and high crimes rates play hand in hand with gamers. Though there are no laws enacted against violent video games many states have tried to implement a few from taxing the games to banning them completely. Some may or may not think so, but kids have been exposed to violence forever. For example, Cinderella’s evil step-sisters pecked their eyes out with doves, and in Hansel an Gretel they killed the evil capturer by throwing her in the oven. The way people view violence is different from one another though movies, books and magazines have all sorts of violence throughout them. There can be murder, theft and dismembering in video games, but once a boob is put in a video game it gets banned. The biggest difference that separates US entertainment from European, is that nudity is fine, but no violence is allowed in their games.

Only 5% of the more than 1,600 games rated last year were “M” (17+)

LAWS that failed:

Entertainment Software Association v. Foti is a lawsuit filed on June 16, 2006 claiming that a Louisiana law should be declared unconstitutional. The recently passed Louisiana law was a way for the state to censor video games by making it illegal to supply minors with video games considered violent, similar to laws making pornographic material unavailable to minors, but using violence as the criteria instead of sexual content. The lawsuit claims that the law infringed on the video game industry’s constitutional right to freedom of expression. The suit was successful in getting the law overturned in late 2006.

Missouri wanted to adapt a tax on violent video games, which failed.  The Republican lawmaker from Missouri, Diane Franklin said the proposed 1 percent sales tax would help pay for mental health programs and law enforcement measures aimed at preventing mass shootings. The tax would be levied on video games rated "teen," "mature" and "adult-only" by the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the organization in charge of rating video games.

 Other proposals to tax violent video games that failed were in Oklahoma in 2012 and New Mexico in 2008.

Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association is a Supreme Court of the United States case that struck down a California law enacted in 2005 that was intended to ban the sale of certain violent video games to children without parental supervision. In a 7–2 decision, the Court upheld the lower court decisions and revoked the law, ruling that video games were protected speech under the First Amendment as other forms of media.

Michigan and Illinois also tried to enact the same sort of laws.

Trenton, New Jersey- A state assemblyman tried to push a bill that would make it illegal for minors to purchase violent video games on their own.

Under the proposed law headed by retailers would face harsh fines for selling violent games with mature ratings to anyone under the age of 18.

The only distribution policy that game distributers HAVE to follow:

The United States Family Entertainment Protection Act (FEPA) was a bill introduced by Senator Hillary Clinton on November 29, 2005. The bill called for a federal mandate enforcement of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings system for video games in order to protect children from inappropriate content.

The FEPA would have imposed fines of $1000 dollars or 100 hours of community service for a first time offense of selling a "Mature" or "Adult-Only" rated video game to a minor, and $5000 or 500 hours for each subsequent offense.

ESRB policy states:

Retailer Support of Ratings

Although it does not have the legal authority to implement or enforce retailer sales policies with respect to video games, the ESRB works closely with retailers to: a) provide in-store signage which explains the rating system; b) support their store policies pertaining to the sale or rental of Mature-rated games to minors; and c) help educate and train store associates and employees with regard to the rating system.

People against video game laws say it goes against free speech and consumer protection. The question that remains is if it is the states place to say who buys the game overall.