New York targets violent video games

James Delahunty
1 Jun 2007 3:03

The debate over the affects of violent video games on minors is back on now that New York State Senate recently passed a bill criminalizing selling violent video games to minors. The New York Assembly has now passed a companion bill that makes it a Class E felony, punishable by up to four years in prison, to provide violent and indecent games to minors.
Bill A08696 goes further however by mandating that all new consoles sold in New York contain parental controls. While the newer consoles, the PlayStation 3 (PS3), Xbox 360 and Wii all have parent control systems, it's not clear what would happen to PlayStation 2 or GameCube.
Once again, this attempt to block the sale of violent games to minors relies on research that attempts to bridge violence in video games to real-life violent behavior amongst the youth. However, that debate is still on-going and whether violent games do have an impact is still unclear.
The two bills (A08696 and S5888) will now go to a conference committee before the final legislation will go to Governor Eliot Spitzer to be signed into law. Given Spitzer's support for such legislation, he will more-than-likely sign it into law. Presumably, as with several other U.S. state attempts, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) will sue immediately.
Source:
Ars Technica