Virtual Fools

Hilary Clinton (D-NY), as of late, has been the big name behind the push for government controlled video game regulation. Before her, Joesph Lieberman (D-Conn) was the face of over-reactions. Today they have joined forces.

If you hadn’t read already, Hilary Clinton announced that she has written a bill entitled the “Family Entertainment Protection Act,” which proposes federal regulation on the sale of Mature and AO rated video games to minors (what a trite/misleading name, too). Effectively, this bill states that sale of these games would be illegal, on which fines could be levied for infringments. The “FEPA” would also create a regulatory board which would oversee Entertainment Software Ratings Board evalutions of games and ERSB standards in general, as well as oversee yearly audits performed by the FTC to see which retailers are breaking the new law.

Concerned citizens will also have the ability to file complaints to the FTC. I don’t exactly know what they’ll complain about, but it sounds like a bad idea to have a method of communication that only accepts criticism. Nitpicking has never been constructive.

Clinton stated that, “video game content is getting more and more violent and sexually explicit,” and that the “Hot Coffee Scandal” has proved that the ESRB cannot handle the job of regulation. No concerned person should not feel betrayed by this statement, as the ESRB is being indicted for one mistake.

The National Institute on Media and the Family, a socially conservative group of disillusioned watchdogs, released their annual 10 most violent video games list. While last year a number of games they cited were not even on the list, they have at least assembled an accurate list this year. The kicker is, these are games you shouldn’t be letting your children play anyway. It’s not like before the list parents had no idea as to which games were violent.

Clinton said that, “A majority of parents are feeling increasingly victimized by a culture of violence that makes it difficult to protect their children against influences they find to be inappropriate.” These same parents then sat down to watch the most recent episodes of “CSI: Miami” and some HBO reruns of “The Sopranos”.

In conclusion: Hilary Clinton, let the ESRB do its job. The video game industry is no worse than the film industry, and that has survived without government regulation for years. Hopefully this bill will fall flat on its face when it reaches the House floor. Let the ESRB do its job, let parents worry about their kids, and get your hands off of the thing you don’t understand. I also have Constitutional issues with a board being created to “oversee” content.

What might bother me the most is that we consumers are left to sit here and do nothing. We get no say in the matter beyond writing to our congressmen or voting people out of office. We’re left to sit, enraged by our helplessness; the Internet our only outlet. But, please, hands off our medium.