Games as Porn Bill Quietly Fails
I wrote pretty much every senator covering the Salt Lake City region with my thoughts on Representative Hogue's bill, HB0257. I am completely disgusted that it passed with a nearly unanimous vote in the house. I am also equally disgusted that, in spite of receiving emails AND a detailed list of concerns from the Utah Merchant's Association to the contrary, the house Judiciary Committee decided to provide a fiscal note that there would be "no fiscal impact" for the business and individual impact.

Yeah, guys losing their jobs and businesses moving out of Utah is no fiscal impact. While I'd like to chalk it up to incompetance, I'm afraid this sounds like outright lies to me. These guys were informed of the impacts, and chose to ignore it in order make the bill look pretty.

As far as I can tell, the Senate decided to kill the bill quietly by letting it expire rather than being viewed as "anti-family." A full report can be found here:

http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/219058.html

This COULD have been somewhat motivated by a recent guest editorial by two legal scholars, Clay Calvert and Robert D. Richards, co-directors of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Ammendment, which appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune at an opportune time.

There was an outstanding commentary by W. Jayson Hill on the reason that videogames have become giant target for every politician and ambulance-chasing lawyer looking to make a name for himself. The article can be found here:

http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/myturn/?id=11981

One excerpt that really drives it home:

"As we reevaluate our adversary, we have to accept that legislators are not really interested in resolving this issue. They pay lip service to working with the industry, but this is an issue politicians have framed as "child safety", and it is too valuable a soapbox to abandon. These legislators have distorted the industry and the ESRB to make their constituents fearful and exploited that fear for votes."

His point is that appealing to the lawmakers is ultimately going to be a dead-end because the videogames industry is FAR TOO USEFUL AS A SCAPEGOAT FOR ALL SOCIAL ILLS. This is a war they are fighting against an illusionary enemy. The rise in violent crime in America (which doesn't exist - violent crime has been dropping dramatically over the last twelve years) is directly linked to violent videogames (which also hasn't been proven), which are being marketed to children (also untrue in MOST cases - the average "mainstream" videogame player hasn't been a minor for nearly 10 years). By claiming to be fighting on the "front line" of an "intense battle" that the average American can't even see, they can make themselves look heroic and pro-active.

Because, you know, solving REAL problems is way too much work, involves way too many compromises, and doesn't gain you nearly as much political clout.

Bottom line (according to Mr. Hill) is that we need to do an end-run around the politicians and go straight to the people at the grass roots level. People fear what they don't understand. So help them understand. Letters to your government leaders are good. But letters to the editor in the newspaper may be better. And getting an "expert" to come to community / PTA meetings and explain the ESRB rating system, and replace FUD with FACTS might be even better.

Labels: Politics

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:39 AM (Permalink)