ALL - Massachusetts Considering Violent Video Game Ban

PlayStation News by Lyndon M STAFF 54 days ago
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The politicians are at it again- Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry will be presenting a bill to the legislature of Massachusetts that seeks to restrict the accessibility of violent video games to minors.

It is doing so under the same notion that minors cannot access pornography, essentially classifying them as the same. Here is a quote from the bill: " Matter is harmful to minors if it is obscene or, if taken as a whole, it depicts violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community, so as to appeal predominantly to the morbid interest in violence of minors;...

"is patently contrary to prevailing standards of adults in the county where the offense was committed and lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value for minors."

Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, Massachusetts is voicing his support for the bill.

"Children aged 17 and under should not be sold this stuff, so they are not getting into the hands of 9- and 10-year-olds," said Larry Mayes, Menino's chief of human services.

"Is it going to be an uphill battle? Sure. But it's absolutely a battle that the mayor feels he should take on."

In reaction to news about the bill, Dan Hewitt, spokesman for the Entertainment Software Association said, "Every time states have tried to restrict access to First Amendment-protected material, it has been considered unconstitutional."

In the ruling that struck down the proposed bill in Luisiana the judge said video games are, "as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature."

With the above ruling and precedents set in other states chances are this may see the same fate.

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