Gaming Guru Blogger John GaudiosiGaming Guru
John Gaudiosi is a national journalist who has been covering the video game business for more than a decade. In addition to blogging for WRAL.com, he also writes about gaming for Wired Magazine, The Washington Post, Xbox.com and Yahoo! Games.

North Carolina Introduces Videogame Censorship Law

Through my various blogs over the years, I've spent a lot of time blasting state governments (as well as the federal government) for the various laws that have been attempted to censor videogames. I'm sad to write that North Carolina is now one of these states. Despite the fact that every similar censorship law in states like California, Illinois, Florida, and Louisiana has been killed or pulled, North Carolina State Senator Julia Boseman introduced Senate Bill 87 this week. This bill adds violent videogames to the long list of material deemed harmful to minors.

If passed into law, it would make it illegal for anyone outside of a parent or legal guardian to buy, rent, sell or expose a violent game to a minor. Retailers would have to sell games deemed "violent" in a separate section of a store labeled "adults only," just as many Mom and Pop video stores have rented pornography for years. Keep in mind, we're not talking about Adults Only (AO) rated games. There have only been a handful of those even released over the last decade--and retailers don't carry those games anyway. Under this new bill, "violent games" could be Teen or Mature rated titles, because the law does not recognize the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.

To put this in perspective, imagine a State Senator telling you that the Motion Picture Association of America ratings are no longer valid. The only way to see the new "Live Hard or Die Hard" movie, because it's violent, is at a separate theater where they also show pornography. In essence, this bill equates violent games with porn. Turn on cable TV today and you have sex and violence on the free airwaves day and night. Sex isn't even an issue with games, because it's not a subject matter that game makers focus on. And the few games that have, like "BMX XXX," have been abysmal flops. So it's violence that's at issue here.

The law would cover "the realistic visual depiction of serious injury to human beings" in videogames. Well, when you look at next generation videogames like EA's "Def Jam: Icon" or Sega's "Virtua Fighter 5," every fighting game would be against the law. And I'm not even including "Mortal Kombat: Armageddon" for Wii, which includes Fatalities and plenty of virtual blood and violence. Both of the locally made best-sellers, Epic Games' "Gears of War" and RedStorm Entertainment's "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter," would likely be deemed too violent under this bill.

The guise that every politician that's attempted to censor videogames--and make no mistake about it--that's what this is--has used children as a way to get uninformed people to go along with this ruse. In fact, it's not children playing Mature-rated games. Retailers haven't sold or rented M-rated games to kids for years. They've been carding kids for several years now. And if parents allow kids to play "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," that's their decision and responsibility, not the rest of the state's. It's not my responsibility, and I certainly don't want to have to buy a game that the industry has deemed fine for anyone 17 or older in the back of a store marked "adults only."

The average age of a gamer today is 33. The majority of gamers are over 17. And kids under that age shouldn't have a credit card or the $50 to buy an M-rated game--even if they find an outlet that doesn't card them. So it's not the politicians' jobs to "protect" children from violent games. And it's certainly not their job to censor games for the rest of us.

The scary thing is that 29 of North Carolina's 50 senators have already signed on as co-authors of the bill. That means it's up to us to fight this or the bill will pass the Senate and would then would need to be passed by the House of Representatives and approved by the governor. It'd become law December 1.

Granted, organizations like the Entertainment Software Association will fight this, and likely win, as they have in every other state. But it's important for gamers to let politicians know that we won't stand for censorship of any kind.
Read More Posts from this Blog
Share:      

7 Comments


Golo

Welcome to GOLO, where WRAL.com visitors can comment on stories and create profile pages, blogs and photo galleries.

You must be a registered WRAL.com user to use these tools. Click here to register or log in.



page 1
sort order: oldest first | newest first

I don't understand - aren't minors the ones that will be fighting our Iraq war over the next several years? Seems like we'd want them pretty desesitized by the time they hit 18.

I think this bill is a good idea. Some of the content today in games and TV has gone too far.

As a game developer, I know that great gameplay cannot be harmed by "toned-down" graphics. The same way that weak storylines aren't be enhanced by shocking images of grave violence.

If snuff is your thing. Get it from the adult section.

Grand theft auto.... awsome game.. make more

b.mullins. i agree. i'm a gamer and have kids that are gamers. i will not let them play GTA or other games of that nature. but i know that other games have toned down the graphics for kids, this is to change the game rating from MA to TEEN and that's making games weak. the parents need to govern what their kids are playing, not the state or feds. and how many times have you seen murders and rapes on the 5:00, 5:30, 6:00, & 6:30 WRAL news? hummm, that's when my kids are watching TV and we're trying to have family time. so what's more of an intrusion of violence, a game that's bought or news that fed into your living room?

njdevilsfaninnchell, are you smoking are drinking something??? do you know what you are typing to everyone?? dude looks like you have problems.

Looks to me that those 29 IDIOTS can't pass anything that would help the people in NC like eliminate the food tax, but they try to get those evil video games off the shelves. If any minors want these I will be glad to buy it for them!!!!

Nice article.. personally I grow weary of the state taking more and more of a parental role instead of worrying about more important legislation. Violent video games can have an effect on young minds, that issue is not at debate. However, cable television, the internet and even real life have far more violent, realistic and wide ranging influences on our children then a video game that the parents should be monitoring anyway.

page 1
sort order: oldest first | newest first

Stories are open for comments between 7am and 10pm Monday through Friday, but GOLO is always open. Sound off on community issues, create your own blog, upload and share image galleries and make new friends in GOLO!

 

Featured Blogposts
  1. Shopping around online pays off, NCSU professor says
    The Skinny
    Shopping around in cyberspace pays double rewards, NCSU prof says

  2. Jeremy Salemson
    Local Real Estate Scene
    How Green Will Become The New HD!

  3. Julie Foldesi
    Research Triangle Rock
    Julie Foldesi Brings It On Home


Other Recent Blogposts
  1. Bill Leslie's Carolina Conversations: Favorite Downtown

  2. The Skinny: Shopping around in cyberspace pays double rewards, NCSU prof says

  3. Brian Shrader's Siteseeing Blog: Bird is the word

  4. The Skinny: WRAL Local Tech Wire goes mobile with new site catering to wireless users

  5. Gaming Guru: Playing games aboard Disney Cruise Lines