Game regulations rise in Mass., fall in Minn.

With 2008 being an election year, it was just a matter of time before the various pieces of game-restricting legislation bouncing around state legislatures across the country resurfaced. This week, two such measures made news in two states separated by several thousand miles--and two different approaches to curtailing sales of adult-themed games to minors.

The Boston Herald is reporting that the Massachusetts legislature is reconsidering a bill which would regulate M-for-Mature- and AO-for-Adults-Only-rated games in the same manner as pornography. On Tuesday, the body's Joint Committee on Judiciary will take another look at House Bill 1423, a bill similar to a Louisiana measure that was permanently blocked in November 2006. According to GamePolitics, both measures were written with the help of prominent game-industry critics.

State representative Christine Canavan is a cosponsor of a petition urging HB1423 to be submitted to the legislature for a vote. "I think this legislation is a good idea," she told the Herald, "I don't want this constant barrage of violence on young minds and for them to think it is all right."

Meanwhile, the Associated Press is reporting that a federal appeals court in Minneapolis has upheld an injunction against another law curbing the sale of games to minors. However, unlike the Massachusetts law, the Minnesota measure would have only imposed a token $25 fine on children under 17 caught purchasing M- and AO-rated titles. The injunction against the law was first granted in July 2006.

Though the three-judge panel's ruling was in favor of game-industry-interest bodies such as the Entertainment Software Association, Judge Roger L. Wollman sounded less than enthusiastic when writing his opinion.

"Whatever our intuitive (dare we say commonsense) feelings regarding the effect of violent video games, precedent requires undeniable proof that such violence causes psychological dysfunction," wrote Wollman. "The requirement of such a high level of proof may reflect a refined estrangement from reality, but apply it we must."