Oklahoma gaming bill moves forward

Earlier today, a piece of Oklahoma legislation that would make it a crime for stores to sell or allow minors to view any game with inappropriate violence cleared one of its final legal hurdles.

The state's House of Representatives passed HB 3004 today, which adds "any description, exhibition, presentation or representation, in whatever form, of inappropriate violence" to the definition of material considered harmful to minors. Currently, the only criteria used for that definition involve sex or sadomasochistic abuse. And while inappropriate violence in any form would be deemed harmful to minors, the law's definition of inappropriate violence specifies that the description or representation of violence must be "in an interactive video game or computer software."

If passed, no person, not even minors' own parents or guardians, would be allowed to give or show them an inappropriately violent game. Furthermore, retailers would not be able to have such games on display where minors could see them, unless the lower two-thirds of the boxes were hidden behind "blinder racks," of the sort commonly used for sexually explicit magazines.

According to the law, the term "inappropriate violence" would be defined as any depiction in a game that, when taken as a whole, has the following characteristics:

"a. the average person eighteen (18) years of age or older applying contemporary community standards would find that the interactive video game or computer software is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community with respect to what is suitable for minors, and
b. the interactive video game or computer software lacks serious literary, scientific, medical, artistic, or political value for minors based on, but not limited to, the following criteria:
(1) is glamorized or gratuitous,
(2) is graphic violence used to shock or stimulate,
(3) is graphic violence that is not contextually relevant to the material,
(4) is so pervasive that it serves as the thread holding the plot of the material together,
(5) trivializes the serious nature of realistic violence,
(6) does not demonstrate the consequences or effects of realistic violence,
(7) uses brutal weapons designed to inflict the maximum amount of pain and damage,
(8) endorses or glorifies torture or excessive weaponry, or
(9) depicts lead characters who resort to violence freely"

The House originally passed the bill by a vote of 97-0 in March, with the Senate passing an amended version 47-0 last month. In today's vote, the House approved the Senate's changes, which would also make it illegal for "sexually oriented businesses" to have an outdoor advertisement within a mile of a state highway. The Senate also added size and information limitations for exterior signage for sexually oriented businesses that are located within a mile of a state highway.

If signed by Henry, the new law will go into effect November 1. Legislation-tracking site GamePolitics has previously reported that Henry's staff indicated he would likely sign any such bill that came before him.