New York passes violent videogame bill

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 5/30/2007

MAY 30 | Hours after the New York Assembly passed a videogame bill barring violent videogame sales to minors, the Entertainment Merchants Assn. blasted the law as “ill-conceived” and unconstitutional.

A8696 would bar retailers from selling or renting games that depict “depraved violence” and “indecent images” to anyone under 17 years old. Anyone violating the law would be committing a Class E felony and could face up to four years in jail.

The bill also would require that all new videogame consoles sold in the state after Sept. 1, 2009, contain mechanisms to allow parents to prevent playback of certain content.

The bill was introduced five days ago and passed today by a vote of 130 to 10.

“The proposal to jail retailers and clerks for up to four years for selling certain videogames to persons under age 17 is apparently based on misunderstandings about what retailers are doing currently,” EMA president Bo Andersen said in a statement. “The requirement that videogame consoles include parental controls ignores the fact that the new generation of consoles includes them already.”

Andersen noted that nine similar laws have been blocked by federal courts on First Amendment grounds in recent years. He said some assembly members acknowledged the bill was unconstitutional but voted for it nonetheless.

"This bill is impermissibly vague," Andersen said. "A8696 seeks to apply real-world standards of violence to the fictional and fanciful world of videogames, an environment in which they have no meaning. As a result, retailers and clerks will not and cannot know with certainty which videogames could send them to jail under A8696. It was depressing to hear members of the Assembly note the constitutional problems with the bill and then state that they were voting for it."

Retailers have stepped up efforts to prevent minors from buying M-rated games. The latest survey by the Federal Trade Commission, released in April, found that retailers had drastically improved their enforcement so that 58% of minors were turned away from buying M-rated games, compared to 16% in 2000.

EMA noted that the current turn-down rate is even higher, 62%, for the national retail chains, where most games are purchased.

The proposal is still steps away from becoming law. Last week, the New York Senate approved a different videogame bill that would require every computer and videogame sold in the state to display a rating. The Senate and Assembly will now likely send the two versions to conference to try to develop a compromise bill, which would then be sent to the governor for approval.

Governor Eliot Spitzer has said he supports videogame restrictions.

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