Hey, guys, calm down. There is no convincing evidence proving violent game make people violent. Obviously people between 5 and 10 years of age have more, to say in few words, “spongy” brains. They shouldn’t be allowed to play these violent games. But this is like people throwing stones at glass houses, then complaining that their feet are getting cut. Quit blaming the stores and developers because your a crappy parent. It’s pretty easy: DON’T LET YOUR KIDS PLAY THE GAME! I have a neighbor who was allowed to play GTA probably at the age of 9, and he is calm and nice.
@bob’s first comment. The reason you see those people playing those games, killing people, and enjoying it is because they are having fun. It relives stress. Come home from a long day at work/school, load up something like Half Life or BioShock, and unwind and take out your frustration on fake people. People who don’t have a way to relieve stress, whether it be games, sports, etc., tend to be the more violent ones who crack and commit crimes to relieve that built up stress.

And finally, I am 14. I am not violent, but if you look at my Steam profile, I have about 80 games, most of which I bought myself. A lot of those games are violent. But despite all those games, I manage to still be one of the calmest, least violent people I know. So if playing lots of violent games makes you violent, then why am I so calm and nice? Because gaming is my passion. Whether it be mapping, modeling, or just playing, I love video games. I want to do it for a career. So all that could get thrown off course because people believe it when the government and over protective parenting sites say that watching violent movies and playing violent games will make your kids violent.

Here is another gamer’s perspective.
I am 51 years old,and have been into computer games for about ten years. They have come a long way in the last ten years. At this point anyone with a good system,internet access,and the time to invest,can change the right game into almost anything he wishes it to be. I have over 300 hours in my latest game(not counting mods,and the time to install them) This “game” now includes sex, drugs, prostitution, a strip bar with nude dancers, violence, unlimited weapons, cannibalism, A vampire cult, nukes, and all kinds of mutants to kill or get killed by. Am I enjoying my time in this wasteland? Hell yes! Would I want some kid playing the same game? Hell no! Can My 16 year old son kick my ass playing the latest Call of duty? Sure. (sixteen year old reflexes) Should he have access to the modded game I am playing? Nope,I don’t think he should. Is that censorship? Maybe.

Ok, OK what next are they going to allow, Porn, child porn, sex with children and animals? snuff movies or live stage proformances, how deep a hole can they dig for us. Oh God, what next? what next?

Children, if your son or daughter can not distinguish between cartoon video games and shooting or killing a real person, then video games are the least of your worries. The difference and distinctions are far too obvious and blatant.

If children do not learn kindness and empathy through love and affection, they will grow up cold and indifferent and then be in danger of becoming indifferent or even violent. Stop blaming games for your own deficiencies. Stop blaming everything but yourselves. You are why the country is in a mess and why your kids are because you are always looking for escape goats, and absolution of your won sins and guilt. Find a mirror quick and have a good long hard look into it.

Even if games are banned, it will not stop God from making a few decisions you might not like. Time to accept personal responsibility and accountability and get out of the blame game. That is for kids.

This lawsuit is ridiculous. We protect society and children from danger all of the time based on content. An easily found example is what happens if you sent a 10 year old into a liquor store to buy a bottle of Jim Beam or Johnny Walker.

If the store is a grocery store, the child is permitted to buy a bottle of Coca Cola, but not the bottle of liquor. This is an example of censorship by package content. It is an example that has been upheld many times in multiple courts.

Protection of children does not have to come at the cost of adults rights. Kids are impressionable and thus hast it always been and forever will be. That’s why we as a species (biologically, physiologic and societal developement) have such incredibly long neo-natal thru adolescent time period vs. the rest of the animal kngdom. We grow slow because we’re born VERY immature… scientifically speaking. There’s also no denying that the “Coumbine Syndrome” is a recent phenomenon, unheard of in prior generations, sparked by what??? Sexual activity up. Did a former POTUS telling us “oral sex isn’t sex” have anything to do with that?? These are all clues stressing the need for vigilant parenting… NOT micro-managing government.

When law is enacted based on what the stupidest and most irresponsible among us will do, that’s a pretty depressing existence.

so now your going to equate child abuse to video games?

nevermind that many minor courts have already struck down this law and noted the studies that the lawmakers used to base this law on are flimsy or just plan bad to begin with.

video games are simply the new boogy man, if it is not rock n roll, or dungeons and dragons, now it is video games going to turn us all in drooling killers.

people that commit crimes are flawed to begin with. nothing makes a person more likely to commit violence but themselves, my father liked to commit violence and he never played a video game in his life less it was maybe pong. and for the record i have never hit a woman or a child ever in my life. you can either be weak and give in or be strong and say i will not repeat the mistakes my old man made.

i have played many violent video games, and never had any urge to go out and relive that in real life nor has the vast majority of gamers.

i think you are way off base in your assertions, i mean we can all cherry pick numbers or studies, but the fact is when even liberal courts that like to shoot down personal liberties and love censorship have struck down this bill and many studies directly contradict the studies this bill cites.

if gaming were causing people to be violent there would be stories every day of school violence, workplace violence, the rise would be drastic since gaming is a big business in this country.

They may have the right to sell such things – but I have the right to not buy them. (At least I do until the government says I MUST buy them.) And any parent who does without bothering to find out anything about the game is the problem.

consoles also have parental controls in them, stores also use the esrb ratings as a guide of who should be buying what games. bottom line kids will nag parents for games, parents need to take the 1 minute to look at the esrb rating and read it, and weigh that rating vs their childs age and maturity level, if there is any uncertain area ask a store clerk or go do some research online. and setup your parental controls on your xbox or playstation, solves many issues of what they can or cannot do while your not paying attention.

thing that really makes this bill so wrong is the fact is uses shoddy research to equate violent games with violent behavior and increased violent behavior. as video games have risen in popularity over the last decade or so violence is down drastically. most research shows no link between video games and people acting violently, if anything more studies suggest video games are an outlet for aggressive feelings, or escapism from negative emotions.

if studies want to make a claim that violent games increase violent behavior, then why when everyone is gaming and more game systems exist in more homes than ever before and continue to get more popular, is violence itself down?

this bill seeks to put games on a equal level of pornography, and say they have no first amendment protection or any artistic merit like pornography. this is something that has never been done to books or movies, like video games movies self regulate and there are no laws banning children from getting R rated movies, but stores voluntarily use the ratings on movies to guide sales, thew same way many retailers use the game ratings to guide sales.

so often our rights get trampled with the calls of protecting something, and no better war cry than in the name of protecting our children from evil game makers selling adult games to kids.

parents need to do their jobs as best they can, and educate each other, but this bill is nothing but bad lawmaking based on false data, and would set a dangerous standard for a emerging media that is on par with books and movies in artistic merit and are deserving of 1st amendment protection period.

It’s not so easy as pooh poohing the mean ol’ government. You all seem to go there. Either that or” it’s strictly up to the parents”. Reality says it’s a little of both but more so on the parents side. Nobody seems to be asking the question; Why are violent videos and the mistreatment of women even accepted in any society? Is that our real inner desire and we want to make sure it doesn’t go away or get banned. As we become desensitized to violence will it become the norm? This isn’t the “Book of Eli” yet but how far are we willing to push it? I’ve seen violent videos in homes of parents with kids so they must approve. Kids or teenagers will “sneak a peek” or play that game when their parent isn’t home or even loan it to a friend. My son brought home a couple of these videos on more than one occasion.So it’s not that easy to monitor until after the fact.

There are many parents that dont have a clue what graphics,type of actions and yes porn are incorporated into todays video games.We have 16 grandchildren and the latest games on the market for them to play when they are here, but each game was scrutinized by us before they were able to play them.It is up to the parents not the government to control cencorship.I still have to laugh when I think about Elvis being censored and now we are the older generation.

I just love how iPhones edit and spell the wrong words for you! It’s quiet in here, wonder if Austan went to school or did he play hooky again? Hmmmm!

That business about kids being handed everything has been going on for decades, since the hippy era.

austen is a child rebelling against the adult world, his comment ”you will just be raising a child with your views and not their own” shows this clearly. He has no concept of a parents role in raising children,which is to instill moral,and ethical values,as well as physically providing food shelter ect. I’m sure that most children from about 12 on would just love to have everything provided for them with no guidance or restrictions attached, some DO have this environment and we all know how that turns out!

Take back our country in November! Everyone get out there and vote the commies out of office!

Dan, I concur with you. The gov’t needs to stay the he’ll out of our business!

Austen is a product of our lovely public school system. He is uneducated in things that matter. He can’t spell for crap and his grammar sucks wieners! Would hate to see what his math skills are like!

Wow! I post a comment that someone may look at things differently once they grow up and it is removed. Yet the comment that is critical of someone being Christian is left alone. So much for Liberty.

I haven’t read the lawsuit, so I don’t know what IT charged, but if it alleged that the video game violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, it will be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. The First Amendment reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
I defy anyone on our planet to explain how a restriction on “Congress” can possibly apply to any state action.

I have read what I think are several good comments.

1. I believe that the exposure to violence is bad. But how many of us ran around as kids pretending to have guns or bows fighting off Indians, aliens, gangsters, robbers, or any number of scenarios. I remember pretending that our tree house was a rocket ship and standing out on one of the branches was some sort of turret where I pretended that certain branches were controls that would fire lasers and/or missiles. I think the real problem with violence is that we fail to live up to our responsibilities as parents. Sort of like seeing parents bring in their children to see a PG-13 movie on opening weekend at the theater. And then the parents are shocked that the movie was violent or had sexual themes? Do you now ban the movies from admitting children under 13? As for myself, I am shocked that the parents took their kids to the movie without first watching it themselves. Did you know that many video games are also given ratings? Now there are a lot of “mature” video games I like to play, mostly because of violence. I was even shocked to realize that a couple games I thought were fairly clean were also rated mature as well. It sort of opened my eyes and I realized that while those games were clean of the sexual content I find disgusting that they were quite graphic in their depiction of the fighting. I haven’t stopped playing those games, but I have reevaluated when, or if, I will let my kids play them. They might have to wait until they’re older before I let them play those games even though the games pass my standards. So, my first point here is that we need to take responsibility as parents for our children.

2. This should not be the place for government intervention. We have been selling our freedoms for what? We complain that parents fail to live up to their obligations to teach their children and then turn around in the next breath say that government should regulate and legislate in the very areas that we think parents are failing to meet our lofty expectations. We ARE encouraging the problem to get worse. The more government does for us, the lazier we get. I know some of us here are exceptions to this rule, but when we complain about people living off of welfare we need to acknowledge that this is part of the problem. So why is wrong to encourage people to be lazy in the financial obligations but perfectly okay to have government take over the guidance of our children? Isn’t this what we will turn around and complain about in the next forum, the next thread, the next bit of news? So if I don’t want the government teaching my children to all be nice little communists, then why do I want to turn over the responsibility to teach my children the basic commandment of “thou shalt not kill?” I want the government to enforce the law of “thou shalt not kill” but not do everything else that my wife and I are responsible for. We aren’t going to get everything perfect with our children, but parents have been raising children for how many thousands of years? Last I understood, none of us were perfect.

3. While we will complain of the violence, which isn’t just limited to these game, how often does an R rated movie have more than just violence? Sure, you can find the R rated movies that only have violence. We even have one on our shelf, “Saints and Soldiers.” Yet I have experienced many R rated movies that had both violence and sexual content of some sort. I remember watching a few edited for television and thinking this movie might be nice, renting or buying it to only find out that there was a sexual scene edited out for TV. The one example is no longer in my movie collection. Enjoyed the movie all except for that one scene. Well, many video games are the same. Not only filled with violence but also filled with messages that degrade relationships between men and women to sexual innuendos. I realize that sex sells, but that doesn’t mean I want my boys growing up thinking of girls as sexual objects. And I don’t want my girls growing up thinking that sex is all they worth to society. I want better for my children. So if I am to reduce mature video games from my home, and regulate what my wife and I will accept (and I expect her to be harsher on the violent content than I am) into our home, I think that should be my choice. Not a mandate from government. When my children are adults, they can make their own choices, responsible or not. While I am raising them, I have to make choices on what I allow them to be exposed to and how I will handle it when they get exposed to things that I object to (and I am certain they will be). But for to go out and demand government protect my children from content I object to is wrong. This not only takes away the liberty of my neighbor, but sets up the loss of the freedoms of myself and future generations of America.

This has to be the most pointless law if ever seen. First, how will they decide which games are “violent”? Most likely by the ESRB. Well most retail stores already don’t sell M rated games to minors. Second, this law doesn’t prevent kid from playing these games, just buying them. Second, I read another article saying that 75 percent of parents are for this law. How many of those parents do you think currently buy these games for their kids because the stores don’t sell them to minors? Finally, why is it the government’s job to keep children from playing these games? Wouldn’t the parent be more able to know when their kid could handle them? Think about it.

The law does not really censor anything. It just says you cannot show this to kids. They will have plenty of opportunity to watch this stuff when they grow up and become adults

People claim that to give kids access to things that attract young minds via violence is irresponsible. I tend to agree. In some respects, watching TV news could be considered a way to see irresponsible violence.
Kids who are raised on a ranch or a farm should know the difference between ‘real’ violence and violence that some call “entertainment.” In that respect, ‘city kids’ are at a disadvantage. Violence that desensitizes kids should be seen as strictly negative, and should be monitored and prohibited. Good, loving, concerned parents make the differnce.
Unfortunately, parenthood isn’t what it should be in America, and many parents have surrendered their
parental rights to Uncle Scam and his psychological conditioning process we call public education.
Kids need to have a sense of childhood. Without it, we get generations of kids who are anything but well-adjusted, and society literally pays for it.
Watch which politicians support giving kids access to violent things, and then do what it takes to single out those pretenders as social pariahs who need to be behind bars.

First of all video games do not violate the constituion. also every generation the adults find something they dislike and try to ban it for instance the 50′s. books were burned. the 60′s they tried to ban rock and roll. 80′s/ 90′s censorship on the radios. come on! the world has changed the youth has changed majority of the youth say racist words but its a joke nowadays its racist to asume its racist if you beleive its meant that way than your racist. games are games. authority always trys to change things they dont understand. they fear change. in the 60′s and 70′s people with long hair were jumped and even killed for being different. only because they were changed or with the times.

If you think about how we go to war with the high tech joy stick bombing runs from cities like nevada and others it would make perfect sense to teach our young its not real its just more of the same gamming that you where taught as a youngster.No real blood just game blood and just think how good you are at that!