Hypocritical language of Assembly Bill No. 1179
Assembly Bill No. 1179 is the bill The Governator recently signed in to law in California that fines anyone who sells "violent" video games to minors. Wired.com's Clive Thompson looks at the language of the bill and finds the section on "torture". The bill basically doesn't like users being able to "torture" (in the "to intentionally cause someone else suffering sense of the word") characters in the video game world. Interestingly enough, the government saw fit to carefully craft documents and legal memos about torture and how they could perform it. This moral ambiguity is best sumed up in the article's final sentence,
Why these politicians believe they can craft laws on something they obviously know nothing about is beyond me. I think that if a politician wanted to play this the right way, they would get some industry people together and work with them to craft something resonable. What if parents actually parented thier children instead of depending on the goverment to do it for them (I am a parent so I can say that)? I'm not saying that parenting is easy but if a game has a Mature rating, why would you buy it for your 12 year old?
Consider that your final irony: Politicians work hard to ban virtual torture -- while working just as hard to allow it in real life.
Why these politicians believe they can craft laws on something they obviously know nothing about is beyond me. I think that if a politician wanted to play this the right way, they would get some industry people together and work with them to craft something resonable. What if parents actually parented thier children instead of depending on the goverment to do it for them (I am a parent so I can say that)? I'm not saying that parenting is easy but if a game has a Mature rating, why would you buy it for your 12 year old?
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