New York pols agree on game bill

Last month, New York state lawmakers introduced a number of different bills to keep violent games out of children's hands. While the bills' authors agreed that something had to be done, they were split on the language of the proposed laws.

The legislature's regular session ended yesterday with nothing to send before the governor, but a representative of State Senator Andrew Lanza--author of several of the proposed bills--confirmed for GameSpot today that senators and assemblymen had come to an agreement on which bill they would pursue.

The agreed-upon bill, S6401, would make it illegal for someone to sell or rent to minors a game with "depraved violence and indecent images." According to the bill, "depraved violence" is any visual representation "depicting the rape, dismemberment, physical torture, mutilation or evisceration of a human being." An indecent image would be any image that qualifies as pornographic, or falls under the state's definition of "harmful to minors."

In addition, the law would require gaming consoles (PCs and handhelds excluded) to include a parental control system that allows owners to prohibit the playing of games "containing certain content or having certain ratings." Finally, the bill would establish an advisory council on interactive media and youth violence that would provide its own recommendations to legislators and independently assess the job done by the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

Lanza's representative told GameSpot that the legislature is expected to reconvene for a special session next month, and the Senator is hoping the gaming legislation is among the measures passed then.