Legislation to classify adult-rated video games as all but equal to porn hit the fast track in Michigan's state legislature this week. The state’s House passed a bid to add video games to obscenity law unanimously, and a state Senate committee voted a more restrictive version out to the full Senate for a vote expected next week.
Whichever version ends up as the final version, Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to sign it. Granholm has pushed state lawmakers to clamp down on children's access to violent or sexually explicit games
The Senate measure, which is expected to pass the full body, would impose criminal penalties on distributing mature or adult rated video games to minors, something the House bill doesn't do. Whichever measure makes it to the governor, it's likely to face a legal challenge, considering that similar measures elsewhere – mostly focusing on violent content more than sexually explicit content – have been struck down in the courts as unconstitutional.
The most recent, according to the Entertainment Software Association, was in Washington state, where the Video Software Dealers Association sued and won a bid to strike down that state's law imposing penalties for distributing adult-rated computer and video games to minors.
"Similar disputes have erupted across the country as state and local governments have attempted to regulate the dissemination of violent video games to children," wrote U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik in a July 2004 ruling.
"As of this date, no such regulation has passed constitutional muster…. Not only is a conscientious retail clerk (and her employer) likely to withhold from minors all games that could possibly fall within the broad scope of the [law], but authors and game designers will likely steer far wider of the unlawful zone than if the boundaries of the forbidden area were clearly marked," the ruling continued. “Given the fact that rights of free expression are at stake, the court finds that the [law] is unconstitutionally vague."
ESA spokesman Dan Hewitt did not return a query for comment from AVNOnline.com before this story went to press. A week earlier, he said his group had been trying to convince as many state lawmakers as possible pondering such penalties that similar legislation is "unconstitutional and unwarranted, because parents are taking steps to make sure the games they're buying for their children and the games their children are playing are appropriate."
Michigan lawmakers involved directly in the pending legislation have said they're aware of the constitutional problems similar laws have hit, but they're also under concurrent pressure from parents to tackle reportedly widespread availability of violent or graphically erotic games to kids.
California and Illinois also are considering penalties for renting violent or sexy video games to minors, but a survey released earlier this month showed 78 percent of the parents polled know the Entertainment Software Rating Board system for rating games, 70 percent check the ratings before renting or buying, and more than half never let their children play games rated M or higher.
The ratings system is the subject of another measure under Michigan House consideration. The measure would require game sellers to post signs showing and explaining the ESRB rating system. Rep. Leon Drolet [R-Clinton Township], who voted against the bill, told reporters it is a bid to interfere with private business.
In a related development, the ESA released survey results this week showing that computer and video games may be overtaking television and movie watching among Americans, with 52 percent of the game players surveyed saying they spend more time playing games than watching TV. Forty-seven percent reported going to the movies less frequently, and 41 percent said they watch movies at home less often.
"What we’re seeing is that consumers are choosing video and computer games as their choice of entertainment for the 21st Century," ESA President Douglas Lowenstein said in a prepared statement.
"Computer and video games have made tremendous advances over the past decade, both creatively and technologically, drawing more people into immersive and complex virtual worlds," Lowenstein continued. "The next 10 years will be even brighter for the industry as the technology and artistry of games continues to establish new levels of excellence and sophistication, and the audience grows even broader and more diverse."
