Playing with video game laws

Gov. Rod Blagojevich wants it to be illegal for businesses to sell violent or sexually explicit video games to anyone under 18. It's an idea that probably has appeal for many people who have seen the graphic nature of some of these games.

The governor's proposal, though, is certain to run into fatal problems of legality and practicality. He would be wise to direct his energies to other efforts.

According to the governor's office, his proposal would make Illinois the first state to prohibit the sale or distribution of such games to minors. The bill also would require retailers to place parental-advisory warnings on video games, comparable to those used on music CDs. A violation would be a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison or a $5,000 fine.

Let's take the legal issue first.

Fact is, a few other jurisdictions have attempted variants of such restrictions, and they have rightly been rebuffed by the courts.

A few years ago, Indianapolis officials sought to regulate access by minors to certain games in video arcades that were deemed "harmful."

But children have 1st Amendment rights. "People are unlikely to become well-functioning, independent-minded adults and responsible citizens if they are raised in an intellectual bubble," Judge Richard Posner wrote in 2001 for the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in a challenge to the Indianapolis ordinance.

No doubt, Posner wrote, Indianapolis would concede that point if the material in question were "The Divine Comedy," or the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, or "The Odyssey," "with its graphic descriptions of Odysseus's grinding out the eye of Polyphemus with a heated, sharpened stick, killing the suitors, and hanging the treacherous maidservants ..."

Surely many parents will draw a distinction between the content of "The Odyssey" and that of "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas," one of the gorier video games to hit the market recently. But that's a distinction for parents to make, not for government to make.

Then there is the question of practicality. Blagojevich said he was prodded to propose this law by his outrage over the release of "JFK Reloaded," a game that re-creates the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

"JFK Reloaded" is truly repugnant--and available by download over the Internet. The Blagojevich law targeting retailers would have no impact on its availability to children or adults. Indeed, virtually all video games can be purchased online, shielding them from this proposed law.

There are two far less onerous ways to deal with the problem of minors' access to violent video games--self-regulation by retailers and more attentive parental control.

The Entertainment Software Association, an industry group, says that 90 percent of all video games are purchased by adults and that the average age of buyers is 36. The industry already rates video games, and in a most straightforward manner: "E" as suitable for everyone; "T" for teens; "M" for mature and "A" for adults only.

Before he left office, former Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan worked out an agreement with large retailers in Illinois to establish policies to prevent the sale of violent or sexually explicit videos to minors. Self-regulation appears to be working, at least at the larger video sale and rental shops.

Finally, there's the question of whether Blagojevich is manufacturing an issue for himself. As a congressman, he voted in 1999 against a proposal to prohibit the sale or rental of violent or sexually explicit video games, movies, books and recordings to minors.

Who's clamoring for such a law now? Harvey Grossman, director of the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, notes that for 40 years the state has had a prohibition on the sale of "harmful materials" to minors. Yet none of the state's attorneys in Illinois' 102 counties has made much, if any, use of the statute in recent memory.

Parents form the most effective line of defense to protect their kids from graphic video games. Some parents say they are not aware of the video-game industry's rating system. They should be. The industry needs to bring more attention to its video-game rating system and press the smaller retailers to abide by it. But vigilance by parents is the surest and most practical way to protect children in this case.