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Tennessee pondering violent-game ban

Democratic Senator Tommy Kilby's SB3981 seeks to outlaw the sale of violent games within the state.

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Add Tennessee to the list of states considering gaming legislation. Last week, Democratic Senator Tommy Kilby filed SB3981, which would make it illegal to sell or rent an "extremely violent video game" in the state of Tennessee.

The bill defines the phrase "extremely violent video game" as "a video game in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being," with a number of clauses specifying that a game would have to be patently offensive to prevailing community standards, among other things, to be considered extremely violent.

The law also takes into account whether or not the virtual victim is an authority figure, whether the victim is conscious of the abuse taking place, and whether the player of the game intends to inflict severe mental or physical pain or suffering on the virtual victim.

Other factors that would nudge a game into the "extremely violent" category "include infliction of gratuitous violence upon the victim beyond that necessary to commit the killing, needless mutilation of the victim's body, and helplessness of the victim."

If passed, the bill would take effect July 1.

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