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The Boston Herald critisizes HB1423 |
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Written by fiasco8
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Wednesday, 19 March 2008 |
The Boston Herald critisizes recent anti-game bill HB1423. This is Massachusetts most recent bill that has Jack Thompson has contributed to meant to make it illegal to sell certain rated games to minors.
We know of no direct link between violent video games and the actual violence that has ensnared so many young Bostonians of late. Perhaps Mayor Tom Menino knows something we don’t.
Or not. Perhaps the effort to ban the sale of violent video games to minors is instead just another example of the mayor throwing a big idea against the wall in the hope that it might stick.
But unlike moving City Hall to the waterfront or linking the Public Garden to the Esplanade, this one is, shall we say, constitutionally problematic. Other states have been stopped cold in their efforts to ban the sale of violent video games to kids - as recently as yesterday, when a three-judge panel blocked Minnesota’s bill. The state failed to prove such games hurt children, judges said.
And Menino’s own human services chief acknowledges a ban here will be an “uphill battle.” Still, Larry Mayes told the Herald, this is “absolutely a battle that the mayor feels he should take on.”
And that’s the problem!
While we appreciate the mayor’s concern over the truly horrifying material in question - games that allow kids to “virtually” beat up prostitutes or take a sledgehammer to the head of an enemy - the idea has more than a few holes.
Is the mayor going to deploy a Video Game Task Force to patrol local stores?
Are either he or the lawmakers sponsoring the bill willing to find money in their budgets to fight the inevitable court challenge? Because other states have spent a fortune defending their bans - and losing.
The city, with Menino’s leadership, is making strides to address youth violence. But he needs to make better use of his time than going after such low-hanging fruit.
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