VIOLENT VIDEOGAMES UNDER ATTACK AGAIN

Yee said he also planned to introduce a 2nd bill that would require videogame retailers to display titles with mature content “in a manner consistent with the industry’s own advisories.” He said the bill would “require retailers to display Mature-rated games out of eye level view of small children and separate from other games.” Retailers would be required to display signs explaining the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings system and would be “prohibited from providing free preview-play of Mature-rated games to minors,” he said.

A spokesman for Yee said the bills would be introduced in Jan., when the Cal. legislature returns. It wasn’t clear Tues. whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) - whose voice and likeness appear in Atari’s T-rated Terminator 3 game - plans to support the legislation.

Yee complained that “92% of children between 2 and 17 years of age play video or computer games and about40% of those games are rated Mature, which are games designed for adults.” He said Mature-rated games were “the fastest growing segment of the $10 billion videogame industry” and he was concerned especially about the first-person shooters in which “the player advances in the game by killing.” Yee said “the top-selling games of 2002reward players for killing police officers, maiming elderly persons, running over pedestrians and committing despicable acts of murder and torture upon women and racial minorities.”

Although “the game manufacturers have the right to produce them for adults,” Yee said “clearly these graphically violent games are harmful to children.” Yee, who’s also a child psychologist, said: “When the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Assn., the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Psychological Assn. all come together and jointly state that this type of entertainment leads to aggressive behavior, then as a community we must protect our children."But Entertainment Software Assn. (ESA) Pres. Douglas Lowenstein criticized the bills Tues., saying: “While we understand and respect Assembly member Yee’s concerns regarding children’s access to Mature-rated games, the bills he is proposing are both unnecessary and unconstitutional.” Echoing comments he’s made various times over the past year in response to similar attacks, he said: “Of all games sold last year only 13% were rated Mature and the FTC’s own statistics show that adults are involved in the purchase or rental of games more than 80% of the time. In other words, when kids get M-rated games it’s usually with their parents’ knowledge and there simply is no epidemic of children buying them. In addition, with the strong support of the ESA leading retailers are actively implementing systems to prevent the sale of Mature-rated games to persons under 17. In fact, the FTC reported that in cases where stores have policies to enforce the Mature-rating, sales to minors are prevented more than 50% of the time, a level approaching that achieved by movie theaters in preventing access of minors to R-rated films."Lowenstein also said “the courts have consistently held that legislation restricting access to computer or videogames violates the First Amendment as games are artistic works that constitute protected speech. Similar regulations restricting minors’ access to violent video and/or arcade games have been stricken by the Seventh and Eight Circuit Courts of Appeals.” He called Yee’s legislation “bills in search of a problem,” saying they “seek to turn retailers into surrogate parents by substituting government regulation and bureaucracy for decisions best left to parents and, finally, bills that are clearly unconstitutional.”

Yee said Grand Theft Auto 3 clearly had inspired criminal acts in the real world. For example, he said, Oakland police earlier this year arrested a group of young men calling themselves the “Nut Cases,” who committed several carjackings, robberies and murders. Yee said police indicated the criminals were inspired to commit their acts by Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto 3, “in which they developed the tactical skills necessary to carry out this violence.” Yee charged that one perpetrator even said, “we played the game by day and lived the game by night.”

Take-Two and its Rockstar Games subsidiary already have been sued in Tenn. by the families of 2 persons who were shot at random by teen stepbrothers who said they were inspired by Grand Theft Auto 3 (CED Oct 24 p7). Take-Two said in an 8-K SEC filing in Oct. that it planned to defend itself “vigorously” against the suit.

The publisher, meanwhile, continued to be under fire from the Haitian-American community, which was angered over the negative portrayal of Haitians in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Newsday reported that attorneys for the community started pushing for laws to ban racist and violent videogames. The report said N.Y. State Sen. Andrews (D-Brooklyn) planned to introduce legislation in Jan. to outlaw games that discriminated against any ethnic group. N.Y.C. Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) is working with the National Organization for Women’s N.Y. chapter and other groups across the U.S. to refine a bill targeted at violent games for next year that had been introduced in Sept. but never acted upon. The bill would make sales of violent games to children illegal, said Ali Davis, Brewer’s legislative dir. Davis said Brewer and others were “trying to substantially redraft the bill” to make it “more viable,” noting that similar legislation had failed to be enacted elsewhere in the country.

Take-Two declined comment on the proposed N.Y. legislation but said: “Regarding the concerns raised by groups representing the Haitian community, we empathize and are giving serious consideration to them. Some statements made by fictional characters in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City have been taken out of context. There was no intention to offend any ethnic group, and we take these claims very seriously.”