Games remain under fire in '06

News blog GamePolitics.com is reporting that legislators from two states this week intend to initiate efforts to regulate the sale of certain video games to minors.

In Missouri, General Assembly House Minority Leader Jeff Harris (D-Columbia) says one of his top priorities for the year will be to introduce legislation that would prohibit the sale of "violent" or "explicit" video games to minors. And in Utah, US Representative Jim Matheson says he will work to make it a federal crime for a retailer to sell a mature- or adult-rated game to underage children.

"You know darn well" that in most cases "the 13-year-old is not being carded when he buys Grand Theft Auto 2," Matheson told the Deseret Morning News, a suburban Salt Lake City newspaper. It has been over five years since any GTA2 iteration has been released, but the Congressman may have been referring to the Grand Theft Auto series at large.

Matheson said a bill has been drafted by his office but not yet introduced into Congress. He added he will use the Entertainment Software Rating Board's current ratings as an enforcement guide. Matheson's office told the paper that he had yet to decide what penalties would be imposed for retailers who failed to check buyers' IDs.

In Missouri, the agenda of Harris appeared even less fleshed out. According to the Associated Press, the game-related legislation was one of numerous issues on the official's action plan for 2006, including those relating to natural disasters, sex offenders, and lobbyist disclosures.

While many government officials have attempted to impose regulations that would penalize the sale of adult-themed or violent games to minors, none of their measures have been fully imposed.

Last month, an Illinois law that attempted to define content and ratings for video games was struck down by US District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly. The federal judge said that two game laws, the Violent Video Games Law and the Sexually Explicit Video Games Law, were both unconstitutional.