If you haven't heard, Califonia State wanted to pass a law that prevents children from buying violent videogames. Their reason is valid in that they want to protect the youth from harmful material that they may not be ready for yet; however, this has caused many concerns in breaking the first amendment and increasing the rule of government's hand over their people. Critics of the videogame industry have been the oppressors of the medium for a very long time in the same way cinema, music and television has in the past. It's understandable that people like James Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, want to protect the mental stability of children, but I have to wonder why there hasn't been more attention to the problem than arousing new ones. Why aren't there more people helping to educate parents about the rating systems? Why are those who blindly buy violent games for their kids the ones who are most adamant on banning them? Is it easier to blame the industry than it is to blame themselves? I'd say no to the last one, because it only takes 10 minutes to check online to see videos, reviews, and the premise of the game they're buying as opposed to taking 10+ years to try to pass a law that is considered unconstitutional.
Anyways, this discussion can go on forever, so it's not something I personally want to delve too far into (there's plenty of forums and chat rooms people can troll around). I personally think that all the censorship in the world is more harmful to kids because it arouses such curiosity from them. It's also near impossible to avoid violence, profanity, and adult material since it's publicly tossed around everywhere on TV, the movies, the internet, and especially in public schools. Instead of telling our kids that "so and so" is bad, we need to teach them why certain things are bad. We don't praise our kids for beating on other kids (but of course there are people who do...), and if there are, that's one of the big problems right there.
For now, California is safe and violent games aren't banned, but I think it's still required for minors to show ID in order to buy M rated games.
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