BATON ROUGE, LA – The Louisiana House had barely passed unanimously agreed upon Representative Roy Burrell’s violent video games bill when the Entertainment Software Association labeled it a “constitutional non-starter.”Several members of the House agreed, but apparently felt compelled to vote for the measure 102-0 in spite of the strong likelihood that it will be declared null and void.
“That’s for the courts to decide,” Rep. Danny Martiny (R-Kenner) insisted. “Anything’s subject to challenge.”
HB 1381 will permit judges to decide whether a particular video game is “patently offensive to prevailing standards” as well as how likely minors are to have their “morbid interest in violence” piqued by the title’s content.
The Democrat’s law would levy fines ranging from $100 to $2,000 against anyone found guilty of selling a qualifying game title, as well as a prison term of up to one year.
The passage of this new law comes as the Entertainment Software Association, which has represented the video and computer gaming industry, has chalked up repeated successes in its challenges of similar bills.
As expected, the ESA was unimpressed by the passage of the law, with president Douglas Lowenstein stating that “As is the case with similar legislation introduced in other states, this bill (HB 1381), to criminalize the sale of ‘violent’ video games to minors, is a constitutional non-starter.” He went on to state that “We do sincerely appreciate and respect the concerns of legislators in Louisiana. However, six courts in five years have blocked or struck down similar laws and notably, all have resoundingly rejected the unpersuasive claims made by states that violent video games cause aggression.”
Lowenstein proposed a “compromise solution” that would close loopholes in state laws
that allow minors access “to video games containing obscene sexually explicit content” and categorize them “in the same manner as movies, books, music and television,” thus creating a law that “would pass constitutional muster.”
The Entertainment Software Assocation president further suggested that some politicians have joined in the fight against violent games in order to grab headlines and do an end run around the constitution, “frittering away desperately needed taxpayer dollars” along the way instead of working together with others to educate parents about available tools to keep their children from age inappropriate entertainment, including ESRB ratings and content descriptors already available.
The Louisiana decision was made after an ESA study revealed that 89-percent of parents whose children play computer or other video games are present when the purchase or rental is made. Additionally, 87-percent of them give permission for the purchases and 35-percent play video games themselves, with 62-percent of those specific parents saying that they do so because they believe it allows them the opportunity to monitor game content.
