INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The Indiana state Senate has decided to delay consideration of proposed legislation that would restrict the sale of some violent and/or sexually explicit video games to minors, opting instead to refer the issue to a “study committee,” according to the Associated Press (AP).The proposed legislation would impose fines of up to $1,000 for retailers that sell or rent video games with a “mature” rating to individuals under the age of 17, or games rated “adults only” to anyone under 18.
In testimony before a Senate committee earlier this week, a representative of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) observed that similar bills in several other states, and within Indianapolis itself, have been struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.
One of the bill’s sponsors, Senator David Ford (R-Hartford City), said he hoped the study committee would come up with a version of the legislation that could survive court scrutiny.
Ford’s co-sponsor of the bill, Democrat Senator Vi Simpson of Bloomingdale, IN, said that the video game industry’s self-regulatory measures are not sufficient.
“Eventually we’re [state lawmakers] going to have to deal with it,” Simpson said Thursday, according to the AP.
Simpson, who says she frequently plays video games with eight-year-old grandson, said earlier this week that the state should establish fines for retailers who don’t restrict sale of games based on the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) game ratings.
“If we don’t enforce [the ESRB ratings system], what good is it?” Simpson said at a hearing held Monday.
At the Monday hearing, a Senate committee watched clips from some examples of the type of games that proponents of the bill would like to see restricted.
According to the AP, the depictions viewed by the committee included “a character urinating on victims and setting them on fire while a narrator made racial comments,” a clip in which a character was “gunning down people in church,” and clips from a game that rewarded players for making progress by displaying video clips of “real topless strippers.” A number of the games included in the presentation contained graphic beatings and shootings, as well as explicit language.
Monday’s viewing session outraged one of its Senatorial viewers – not just because of what the clips depicted, but due to the forum in which they were displayed.
“I am absolutely totally appalled – first by the content and second that you would bring that kind of filth into this Senate chamber,” said Senator Brent Waltz (R-Greenwood) to a supporter of the legislation, according to the AP. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.”
Waltz was especially upset that the clips were shown during a session that was open to the public.
Ford took responsibility for the clips being shown and said that in retrospect he could have handed things differently, but he thought it was important that the legislators see the graphic content for themselves.
“My thought was you needed to know what you were voting on,” Ford said.
Bill supporter Steve Stoughton, who is president of the Center for Successful Parenting, said he brought the clips to the session as an example of games that are rated “M” or “mature,” which under the ESRB system denotes games appropriate for people age 17 and older.
Stoughton asserted that most parents simply are not aware how graphic some of the games their kids play are.
“They have no idea, really, what they’re children are watching,” said Stoughton. “It’s an issue that isn’t going to go away.”
Retailers and representatives of the video game industry spoke in opposition to the bill in hearings this week, asserting that voluntary restrictions already in place are working.
“Many retailers do a great deal already,” said Grant Monahan, president of the Indiana Retail Council, according to the AP.
Monahan added that many gamer retailers already check the identification of people who buy games rated “M,” and that he did not know of any store in the state that sells games rated “AO” or “adults only.”
Ford responded that retailers should not object to the legislation if they are already checking IDs when they sell M-rated games.
