reposting continued from previous
>>11822105
>“If, let’s say, a ‘Godfather’ video game were banned to certain classes of people in [one state],” Mercurio said, “why not go even further? If it’s bad as a video game, why not ban the movie trilogy? Why not ban the book? Why not burn the book?”
>It’s definitely a scary thought, and if things don’t go our way, it could happen.
>It’s amazing to think that people still think minors are out there buying M-rated (“Mature”) titles despite the game industry’s self-policing via the Entertainment Software Review Board (ESRB). The ESRB employs people who are probably the best at deciding what’s appropriate for children – professional educators. The politicians trying to make the rules? They probably aren’t going to know as much.
>“Elected officials know what they’re talking about, but being an educator and working on educational systems is not their full-time gig,” Mercurio said.
>Not only that, but the ESRB’s system provides for different levels of violence (and other content) by age group, whereas the California law limits the same level of violence to everyone under 18.
>“[That] seems odd to us because the ESRB has different thresholds for people who are 10 than people who are 17 and a half,” Mercurio said. “Obviously, someone who is 17 and a half handles things a little differently than someone who is 10. So it seems overly broad and unnecessarily confusing.”
>The ESRB works together with several game merchants in its ESRB Retail Council (ERC). The ERC partners make their best efforts to avoid exposing minors to M-rated content as well as provide information about ESRB ratings to potential consumers.
>Surprisingly, this self-policing works. And retailers are getting better and better at enforcing it. Recent secret shopper attempts funded by the Parents Television Council (so take the results with a grain of salt) have found that some kids are still able to purchase M-rated games, but again, almost every retailer improved, and at several, not a single purchase attempt was successful. Compare that to just two years ago and you’ll see a difference.
>“Far and away, the video game rating system is the most used at point-of-sale, the most complied-with,” said Mercurio. When comparing this to movies, she said “that shows that over a short period of time, the ESRB rating system has gone much further than the movie rating system.”
>The ESRB was founded in 1994. The Motion Picture Association of America? 1922 (though the name didn’t change until 1945). In its 16 years of existence, the ESRB has caught up with, if not surpassed, the MPAA in terms of self-policing. So what else can we do to spread the message about the ESRB’s rating system?
>Attorneys general of several states have already implemented public service announcements to get the word out about the system, which rates games for certain age groups based on content, just like the MPAA’s movie rating system. Merchants, overall, do an excellent job of promoting the ratings system. Even with a simple Google search, the ratings are readily available, along with descriptors – brief on the box, lengthy on the website – that describe what kind of content is in the game.
>“I don’t know, other than doing more of what we’re already all doing, what else there is,” Mercurio said. While there may not be much else to do, it still comes down to parental authority on this issue. Elected officials should not have to nanny the game industry – we don’t need it.
>The ECA’s amicus (“friend of the court”) brief, which Mercurio worked on with lawyers from Hughes Hubbard and Reed, LLP and Brooklyn Law School’s BLIP Clinic, was one of 27 submitted to the Supreme Court.
>“On our brief alone, we had six organizations that represent Americans from every walk of life – all of these folks, and all of these organizations, are saying that parents have the right to exercise their own parental authority,” she said. “We’re talking about speech itself. First Amendment protected speech and artistic expression should be protected under our Constitution, and that’s ultimately what it comes down to.”
>You may still be wondering why I’m so interested in what Jenn has to say (though after 1600 words, I’d hope that you get it by now). Well, she’s not just fighting for us – she’s one of us. A geek, a gamer – however you want to put it, she knows what is really at stake here.
>Granted, she might not be the most hardcore gamer out there, but she’s still a gamer.