One irony is that this isn't a "truth in advertising bill" its a bill that targets video games. It also will have the opposite effect of what it is intended to do and behind-the-scenes it is partially sponsored and co-written by a bully and a scoundrel who is a disbarred lawyer on a crusade. His name is Jack Thompson.
The law will impose penalties on businesses that say they will not sell video games to minors and then are caught doing so.
The most obvious problem is that retailers will simply stop saying they don't sell to minors so they don't get burned with false advertising. The easiest and cheapest solution will be for stores not to advertise that they do this.
The next problem is that according to a study, the ratings system was working pretty well and is doing better all the time.
Here is a quote from game news site Joystiq: "We now have three consecutive events to eagerly anticipate -- first, the bill must be approved by Utah governor Jon Huntsman before it's officially adopted. Second, the new policy will go into effect on January 1, 2010. Finally, we wait to hear how the ESA will spend the humongous legal fee reimbursement check that the taxpayers of Utah will indirectly cut when the bill is likely found unconstitutional. Perhaps some sort of tropical outing for their employees? We hear the beaches of Costa Rica are simply breathtaking."
Joystiq pokes fun because a lot of game laws are struck down by courts and the money spent by the Entertainment Software Association gets refunded by states. California had this happen in February.
You can read more details here if you wish.
I hope Huntsman is informed enough to understand this "little" bill.
And parents, parent your kids and don't take them to see "The Watchmen" movie and don't buy them "Resident Evil 5," no matter how much they beg.
Finally, if any of you (I am pretending there are "yous" out there) still think video games are behind shootings like the one in Columbine, kindly let me know. I have plenty to say about that too.
Larry, I need to enlightened here, but I am strongly under the impression, or frame of mind, that video games have a very high correlation to violent crimes committed. I see your point here about the effectiveness (...non-effectiveness...) of legislation surrounding the issue. Without the legislation, the system seems to be working great. Let the parents be informed and restrict their children's usage of the product by their own choice. But what about legislation on the companies that make the violent video games? If we can prove a correlation of violent crimes to violent video games (which is difficult I'm told), then I would have a tendency to go after the makers of that stuff instead of the users. The legislation would be easy: if a company produces that kind of product, and legislation has substantiated that violent crimes are linked to such material, penalize the company and ban the material from the market. Now, some will cry... legislation of morality!... but doesn't Utah have some kind of laws on prostitution? Isn't that morality? So, the crutch of the issue to me is, can we correlate violent crimes to violent video game entertainment?
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