All Video Games Cause Aggressive Behavior, Say Two US Congressmen [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

Fluffeh writes with news that U.S. Congressmen Baca (D-CA) and Wolf (R-VA) have proposed a bill that would require most video games to have a warning label decrying their "potential damaging" long-term effects on children. "Under the one-page Violence in Video Games Labeling Act (PDF), packaging for all video games except those rated 'EC' for Early Childhood would be required to prominently display a message reading: 'WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior.' The proposed label would be required even if the video game in question is not violent."

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[markusman64ds]

WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior.

[dendawg]

Suuuuuuurrree.....Video games cause violence....

...and Pac-Man makes people fat, and Tetris was responsible for 9/11.....etc, etc, etc,......

Quit fucking around with asinine laws, Congress, and actually try to do your job for a change!

[RCM]

This is essentially a rehash of a bill they proposed a year or so ago. It's fucking BS and another waste of taxpayer dollars. While gamers somehow shockingly missed ESA is the body representing the interests of game companies, their interests certainly intersect with those of gamers more often than not. This is a case where those interests cross, and why the ESA is still relevant, even if they do support shitty legislation every so often (SOPA, PIPA).

[Emperor Megas]

WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior.

Wouldn't that be considered EC (Early Childhood), and exempt?

[NayusDante]

Yeah, no labels would be placed on Sesame Street games. Tetris, on the other hand...


They make it sound like it would require big red stickers. The Parental Advisory logo isn't terrible, I'd assume it would be something more like that. Realistically, however, it should be like the epilepsy warning. Every game has that, and it's unobtrusive.

[Spidey80]

Yep, any new Mario game is sure gonna cause aggressive behavior...

Didn`t the Supreme Court ruling last year teach these douchebags anything?

[Tupin]

Unlike the other things that have large warning labels on them, no conclusive proof has ever been brought forward. It's like people saying that cell phones cause life-long health effects. They haven't been around long enough to test.

I've always thought it was weird that games have to have their rating front and center on the box, but movies get away with it on the back of the case, barely visible. Even on posters, they get to hide it in the copyright information.

[SpaceHarrier]

I know a congressman that will never get my vote.

[Icarus Moonsight]

6% approval rating...

[G-Boobie]

Old white people are frightened into aggressively legistlating emerging media by fundamentalist lobbying groups. That's not even news at this point. It's Tuesday.

It'll fail like all the others have, and waste our money, and in the meantime our national infrastructure will continue its spiral into ruin. If only our elected representatives could just come to grips with our moral decline, the economy would just SNAP back right into place, right?

Right.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Sheesh. Talk about a first world problem.

[RCM]

Old white people are frightened into aggressively legistlating emerging media by fundamentalist lobbying groups. That's not even news at this point. It's Tuesday.

I always blame the old white people and fundamentalist lobbying groups. Get rid of both and the country (and videogames) will be a lot better.

[calthaer]

I always blame the old white people and fundamentalist lobbying groups. Get rid of both and the country (and videogames) will be a lot better.

That's funny, because the states that have been putting these "violent video game" laws out there are hardly bastions of old, white fundamentalism.

[RCM]

That's funny, because the states that have been putting these "violent video game" laws out there are hardly bastions of old, white fundamentalism.

I was being sarcastic, of course.

[G-Boobie]

That's funny, because the states that have been putting these "violent video game" laws out there are hardly bastions of old, white fundamentalism.

If you research who's funding the research and lobbying firms that are behind these stupid laws, you'll find groups like The Center For Successful Parenting, an evangelical rightwing non-profit that also funds anti-same sex marriage legislation in several states and has ties to the "personhood" anti-abortion referendums in Mississippi. The Center For Successful Parenting, and the groups like them, have a proud history in these United States of attempting to legislate away everything from alcohol, pornography, comic books, rap and metal music, and now games. And since you're obliquely referring to California, I'd like to remind you that California has produced Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan: two of the oldest and whitest dudes who ever lived.

EDIT: I originally identified the Center for Successful Parenting as Family First. They're pretty bad too, but to the best of my knowledge they've never funded video game related research. Just anti-same sex marriage legislation, anti-abortion legislation, and legislation that would protect Christian school children who are bullying homosexuals under said bullying being a religious freedom.

[calthaer]

Guess you're also forgetting all about stuff like this then, too:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ames-bandwagon

The quacks advocating video game censorship are hardly limited to one party or ideology. You can try to say otherwise, but the facts don't support you.

[RCM]

Guess you're also forgetting all about stuff like this then, too:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ames-bandwagon

The quacks advocating video game censorship are hardly limited to one party or ideology. You can try to say otherwise, but the facts don't support you.

Yeah, anti-game/moralist groups, politicians and other opportunists come from all walks of life. But it's easy to point to the old white people and bible thumpers.

Some confused idiots really think they're trying to help, while others, most in my opinion, are opportunistic. Why do you think Arnold Schwarzenegger supported the CA law struck down by courts, including the Supreme Court? Because protecting the children always polls well. Too bad that shitty episode cost his state millions it doesn't have.

[G-Boobie]

Guess you're also forgetting all about stuff like this then, too:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ames-bandwagon

The quacks advocating video game censorship are hardly limited to one party or ideology. You can try to say otherwise, but the facts don't support you.

You're not listening. You've fastened on to an end result and ignored the causes.

Do you think Clinton is doing this research? No. Groups like the ones I mentioned above are. And their research (and more importantly, their funding) are hardly impartial. They, and their lobbies and campaign funds are latched on to by opportunistic scumbags like Clinton, Leland Yee, Schwartzenegger, and Lieberman, who then attempt shitty legistlation because tackling actual for really real probelms is hard and voters have a hard time understanding them anyway. Their party affiliation is irrelevant. What matters is that the research is never good research because it's funded and approved by people with very specific political agendas. It's funny that the truck load of research that's widely available that concludes that games aren't any more likely to promote violence than movies or books goes largely ignored.

And the old white people crack? They're the politicians who might have played Pac-Man once before they took their first public office and have no idea what games actually ARE. Lieberman, Nader, Schwartzenegger, Clinton. And they think they have a grasp on the situation because a lobbyist told them that GTA is a rape simulator. Way to go.

Let me be clear on this, again: I don't give two shits about ideology or party lines, except where patterns that affect the lives of me and mine appear. These idiots are the same type who, in times past, promoted and sustained prohibition, threw the comics code witch hunt, spent millions of tax payer dollars on the porn rock hearings, and tried to have it so that my little brother could be publicly humiliated for being gay. So you'll excuse me if I'm tired of their fucking bullshit.

[kedawa]

Yeah, no labels would be placed on Sesame Street games. Tetris, on the other hand...


They make it sound like it would require big red stickers. The Parental Advisory logo isn't terrible, I'd assume it would be something more like that. Realistically, however, it should be like the epilepsy warning. Every game has that, and it's unobtrusive.

No, it should remain non-existent like it is now.
Even the epilepsy warnings are pointless and only serve to waste everyone's time for the dubious benefit of epileptics who already know the risks.