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New York, you've finally done it. It took you a while, but you've finally signed that pointless videogame law into action. If you look back at the coverage Samit and David Houghton gave the bill, you'll get an excellent idea of what the bill talks about. I'll try not to just repeat what they've already said.
Of course, as soon as this was passed, condemnations of the whole law were shouted by the ESA and the ACLU. The ESA's release condemned the law as pointless, a waste of money, and ignores legal precedent. An interesting quote from the NYCLU's Bob Perry:
This bill was adopted in the last minutes of the legislative session, without hearings, without meaningful debate, without an opportunity for members of the public or industry to address the constitutional issues and the media technology issues implicated by the bill.
This law has no teeth in terms of regulating videogames. It simply mandates that two standards that are already in place exist (ESRB ratings and parental controls on consoles). Digging in a bit further, though, what I noticed was the bill talking about an "advisory council on interactive media and youth violence." I'll go into a bit more after the jump.
Here are the council's main responsibilities:
Make advisements on interactive media and youth violence related issues
Address the potential impact of interactive media on minors, looking for relationships between them and violence
Assess the effectiveness of the ESRB rating system
Study the possibility of establishing a parent-teacher violence awareness program
And who will be on this council? Sixteen members, appointed by the governer.
The members shall include individuals with expertise in the area of the youth violence, one representative from the video game manufacturing industry and one representative from a trade association representing video game retailers.
My biggest question is, why do you need to rate the effectiveness of the ESRB? I have never seen a case of a game being misappropriately labeled -- except when GTA was given an AO rating or forced to change. If you're worried about kids getting games that they shouldn't be playing, then focus on the retailers.
And if they found the ESRB rating system inadequate? What would happen then? My guess is that the ESRB would immediately move to strike down the law, as they have industry-wide support and can easily claim that it would cause serious confusion in the market. Of course, I'm no legal expert, but that's just what I can foresee.
While the bill has no teeth to bite with, I'm somewhat worried about the complications this can create further on down the road. The advisory council could try to upset the ESRB (remember, videogames are only represented by 1/8th of the council at best), and with that, create a new legal precedent that other states will soon follow suit with. My suggestion: take care of it now, ESA, before this becomes a really big problem.
While American soldiers are fighting and dying overseas to provide less fortunate people with rights and freedom, their politicians are taking away those same rights and freedom back home. I just can't find the right words to describe it... :(.
Like any off-chute of the American Government isn't going to continually try to herd the sheep, err excuse me, citizens and protect them from themselves based off what lobbyist paid politicians 'think'?
Oh my God. I read your coverage that Samit and David gave and could only hope that some people would have the sense to realize what you guys criticized the bill about, but then I also need to remember that these are politicians and not people. They don't get it, and I don't think they ever will.
It's not a problem with the ESRB, the ESA, the companies, the producers. It's the retailers and the parents who buy the game for kinda under the age limit of the games (going back to retailers who don't mention the rating to said parents).
PS Arcanum, not matter how long I try to figure out your ava, I still don't get it.
I agree. The only group that needs evaluation are the retailers since that's where the major breakdown occurs (and the parents too of course but you can't evaluate them). More examples of politicians missing the real problem.
First lets make this clear that this is not the Federal Government doing this, its a state government. That being said it is only law in the State of New York. However, it could establish a precedent for other states....which brings me to
The problem with this is it was a total waste of tax payers dollars in New York, not taking away rights or freedoms from citizens. If I lived in the state I would write immediately to both your state congressman and your state senator informing them how irate you are over the complete stupidity of this law and the fact it was hastily passed through the congress. Not to mention the impending amount of legal fees that will possibly be charged to the state of NY...much like Minnesota.
It was previously highlighted that this bill means that 16 people will meet twice a year to achieve nearly nothing. It's not nearly as aggressive or troubling as other bills, and all it really deserves is a shaken head and a shrug that they "just don't get it, man." We're not living in the 1920s. This does not represent some kind of video game Hays Office. We won't get a United States Video Game Production Code.
And if we do? All the more reason to move somewhere that's not acting stupid.
What I hate is the fact that this bill, as proved in other states, is clearly unconstitutional, and will certainly be overturned soon. That makes this a simple exercise of the government signing away some of our taxes to pay off the ESA's court bills, just so they can say that they're being tough on violent video games with laughable methods in the first place.
How can they investigate a system which has clearly worked for years and years and is as basic as it gets but without a doubt covering the concern of "parental controls."
This law needs to be challenged and struck down and the crack in the door closed ASAP, before the really totalitarian laws can start slipping through that crack and making it wider.
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21 comments + 95764 views
Fuck. I'm getting out of here while i can
Somebody stop the world and let me off. I have had it with stupidity
Why can't the goverment focus on things that, oh I don't know, REALLY MATTER?
While American soldiers are fighting and dying overseas to provide less fortunate people with rights and freedom, their politicians are taking away those same rights and freedom back home. I just can't find the right words to describe it... :(.
Like any off-chute of the American Government isn't going to continually try to herd the sheep, err excuse me, citizens and protect them from themselves based off what lobbyist paid politicians 'think'?
WTB Second Revolutionary War.
Oh my God. I read your coverage that Samit and David gave and could only hope that some people would have the sense to realize what you guys criticized the bill about, but then I also need to remember that these are politicians and not people. They don't get it, and I don't think they ever will.
It's not a problem with the ESRB, the ESA, the companies, the producers. It's the retailers and the parents who buy the game for kinda under the age limit of the games (going back to retailers who don't mention the rating to said parents).
PS Arcanum, not matter how long I try to figure out your ava, I still don't get it.
I agree. The only group that needs evaluation are the retailers since that's where the major breakdown occurs (and the parents too of course but you can't evaluate them). More examples of politicians missing the real problem.
First lets make this clear that this is not the Federal Government doing this, its a state government. That being said it is only law in the State of New York. However, it could establish a precedent for other states....which brings me to
The problem with this is it was a total waste of tax payers dollars in New York, not taking away rights or freedoms from citizens. If I lived in the state I would write immediately to both your state congressman and your state senator informing them how irate you are over the complete stupidity of this law and the fact it was hastily passed through the congress. Not to mention the impending amount of legal fees that will possibly be charged to the state of NY...much like Minnesota.
another victory for stupidity.
It was previously highlighted that this bill means that 16 people will meet twice a year to achieve nearly nothing. It's not nearly as aggressive or troubling as other bills, and all it really deserves is a shaken head and a shrug that they "just don't get it, man." We're not living in the 1920s. This does not represent some kind of video game Hays Office. We won't get a United States Video Game Production Code.
And if we do? All the more reason to move somewhere that's not acting stupid.
hooray for living in california!
Ten year olds shouldn't be playing GTA? Shocker!
"Make advisements on interactive media and youth violence related issues"
Why only interactive media?
"Address the potential impact of interactive media on minors, looking for relationships between them and violence"
Why not address the problem of minors being bought inappropriate material by ignorant parents?
"Assess the effectiveness of the ESRB rating system"
Does this mean they are going to aim to find the ESRB ineffective in a couple of years and force through their own bullshit rating system instead?
"Study the possibility of establishing a parent-teacher violence awareness program"
How about making parents aware that they shouldn't be buying mature entertainment for their kids?
Also, why the fuck would you have a board of people that only contains 2 representatives of the industry?
Can't say I'm surprised. Oh well, cue another huge waste of money in having this thing overturned I guess.
Wait, why don't the parental controls include handhelds? This will get shot down like all the other I bet so I don't really care.
Pretty soon there won't be any faces left...
so now the law is getting mad at the labels parents never pay attention to?
How much more stupid can America produce?
What I hate is the fact that this bill, as proved in other states, is clearly unconstitutional, and will certainly be overturned soon. That makes this a simple exercise of the government signing away some of our taxes to pay off the ESA's court bills, just so they can say that they're being tough on violent video games with laughable methods in the first place.
How can they investigate a system which has clearly worked for years and years and is as basic as it gets but without a doubt covering the concern of "parental controls."
Great write up, dude.
This law needs to be challenged and struck down and the crack in the door closed ASAP, before the really totalitarian laws can start slipping through that crack and making it wider.
Hooray, more tax money wasted so we can buy votes by pretending to care about the children!
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