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Opinion

Censorship: Biggest boss of them all

Shaun Rodriguez
Opinion Columnist

Federal video game regulation legislation was just a matter of time, it seems. The Family Entertainment Protection Act, proposed by Sen. Hilary Clinton and Sen. Joe Lieberman in late 2005, will lawfully prohibit minors from being able to buy Mature-rated and Adult Only-rated games. This is much like with the sale of cigarettes and alcohol. 

All media of expression similar to video games (not to mention all of them are older than games), have somehow managed to avoid strictly enforced federal regulation. It seems to me that if the sale of video games is to be regulated, the sale of these other media should be as well. Not to say I'm for the regulation of any of these things -- in fact, far from it. Why are video games coming under such heavy fire, when other media that have just as much of a capacity to "corrupt" minors are effectively being ignored? 

If video games are to be regulated under an act which, by its very name, promotes "family protection," it seems to me that movies and music, at the very least, should be included under this very same act. I fail to see why it should be illegal for a minor to walk into a Blockbuster and try to buy or rent the latest Resident Evil game, yet no one gives a second thought to the same minor picking up a copy of the upcoming Hostel DVD. 

Let us also not forget that it is the job of the parents, not the federal government, to keep this kind of material out of the hands of their children -- movies, games or otherwise. Lazy parenting is no excuse for the support of this act.

My biggest fear is that this act will, by its very nature, stifle creativity in game design and will prevent great games from ever getting off the drawing board. Games raise money for their publishers and developers, allowing them to pay their employees and their families, as well as reinvest that money into pushing the creative envelope even further. 

If this act passes, there will not be as much money to be made from making an M-rated game because some retailers won't stock it. Think about if you had missed out on ever seeing Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction, and then try and tell me that this act is a good thing.

Regulating video games will only bring the government one step closer to regulating any content that they deem "not safe." This is a huge deal, people. 

The Entertainment Software Association has responded with a Web site that allows those who oppose the act to quickly and easily voice their opinions to their state senators with a form letter that, I must say, voiced my opinions very succinctly. I encourage everyone reading this to visit http://www.videogamevoters.org, sign up and utilize the site to do just that. This legislation doesn't deserve to ever get passed in Congress, so let's ensure that it stalls and dies.

Rodriguez, an opinion columnist for The Daily Cougar, 
can be reached at chrono_magi@hotmail.com.