Congressional Video Games Law Push Renewed
Likely Republican presidential candidate Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas plans to reignite the Congressional movement to ban violent video games by reintroducing the Truth in Video Game Rating Act.
The bill was first introduced in September of last year along with similar legislation in the House, but nether bill made it to the floor for an actual up or down vote.
The bill will require game rating groups like the ESRB to play a game in its entirety before assigning it a rating. Consequences would be doled out to ratings groups whose ratings are significantly different than the actual content of the game.
In an obvious nod to the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas scandal nearly two years ago, game developers would be banned from hiding any game content from those who rate it.
If adopted, the bill would seriously change the way games are rated. Currently, most reviewers do not play the actual games and rather rely on taped segments of the game to assign the rating. Under the Truth in Video Game Rating Act, ratings would be based on the actual experiences of the reviewers themselves.
"Game reviewers must have access to the entire game for their ratings to accurately reflect a game's content," Brownback said. He also seems to indicate in the bill that a conflict of interest currently exists in the way the ESRB is set up.
Currently, the board is comprised of people who have a vested interest in the industry itself. Brownback would like the Government Accountability Office to investigate this, and whether the effort would be better served by independent researchers.
Widely considered by most political insiders as one of the most conservative candidates in the race for the White House, Brownback may see the issue of violent video games as more of a moral issue.
Regardless, banning violent video games has support on both sides of the aisle. Senator Hillary Clinton, also a presidential hopeful, introduced legislation in December 2005 to make it harder for minors to purchase violent video games.