Video Game Decency Act introduced in congress

[Don Maddox]

http://gamepolitics.com/2007/03/20/video-game-decency-act-introduced-in-congress/

Politicians are at it again. My understanding is that ESRB is voluntary and not run by the government. This bill is apparently an attempt to give the government the authority to hand out fines for video games they don't like.

This is from the ESRB homepage: http://www.esrb.org/ratings/faq.jsp#2

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a non-profit, self-regulatory body established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). ESRB independently assigns computer and video game content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines and helps ensure responsible online privacy practices for the interactive entertainment software industry.

The rating system is voluntary, although virtually all games that are sold at retail in the U.S. and Canada are rated by the ESRB. Many retailers, including most major chains, have policies to only stock or sell games that carry an ESRB rating, and most console manufacturers will only permit games that have been rated by ESRB to be published for their platforms.

[Aries]

This one is sounding like hysteria with no substance.

I think what really needs to be done, is to assess whether this politician is wasting tax dollars on worthless time wastage, and possibly give him a stern reminder that he is expected to actually accomplish something worthy while working.

[Dr. Winston O'Boogie]

Bills like this have already been struck down as unconstitutional in many states, so I doubt this'll go anywhere.

And anyway, everything his bill is trying to accomplish is already accounted for by the ESRB. Developers aren't fined for hiding content, but often games are rerated by the board if anything is found later that conflicts with its original rating. This happened with Oblivion, and again with GTA: SA, and both times the ESRB was actually criticized for it by a lot of people. In either case, there was absolutely no need for them to be "fined millions of dollars".

He's just another politician who doesn't understand what he's trying to regulate.

[L`zard]

He's just another politician who doesn't understand what he's trying to regulate.

Or just another politician trying to get his name in lights with certain voter-bases........

_______ (enter item) dont kill people, 'people' (define term) do! :mad: