California bill to prohibit game sales to minors

If Leland Yee gets his way, amusement park rides won't be the only form of entertainment with a height requirement. The California state assemblyman introduced a bill today that would require Mature-rated video games to be displayed at least five feet above the ground, ostensibly to keep them away from minors' impressionable eyes. The Yee bill would also require that stores display M-rated games in a separate area, away from other games.

However, Yee aims to do a whole lot more than regulate M-rated games' display. Under section 313 of the California criminal statutes, anyone caught providing "harmful matter to children" can be fined up to $2,000 and receive a year in jail. Currently, that law is used most often to prosecute stores or Web sites that rent or sell pornography to minors. A second bill introduced today by Yee would expand the legal definition of "harmful matter" to include video games that "that visually depict serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel." While somewhat fuzzy, it is likely that definition would cover many of the games that currently carry the 'M' rating.

Yee announced his two-pronged effort at a San Francisco press conference today, surrounded by representatives from women's groups, child advocates, police officers, and elected officials. "No more of these video games [will] help our kids become shooters," Yee said, "These are not the activities we should be teaching our children." Yee did acknowledge that his efforts may be considered radical, but said they were justified. "It is rather extreme what we are trying to do, but you have to draw the line," he told reporters.