US Senator introduces new gaming bill

Earlier this week, the governor of New York signed into law a measure that prohibits retailers in the state from selling games that don't carry a rating label, among other things. The Entertainment Software Association, ordinarily ready and waiting with legal challenges to game-restricting legislation, called the law unfair and unconstitutional, but stopped short of filing a lawsuit.

Perhaps encouraged by the industry trade group's lack of litigious response, Mississippi Senator Roger Wicker yesterday introduced his own game-restriction bill at the federal level, as reported by GamePolitics. The full text of the measure is not yet available from the Library of Congress Web site, but the title of the measure gives a good indication of what the Republican lawmaker wants to achieve. The full title is "A bill to prohibit the distribution or sale of video games that do not have age-based content rating labels, to prohibit the sale or rental of video games with adult content ratings to minors, and for other purposes."

The requirement of age-based content labels has not been a significant issue in previous court battles over gaming legislation, but prohibiting the sale of games to minors based on their content is a recurring point of contention. Laws in California, Illinois, and Louisiana were all overturned, partly because they were based on unconstitutionally vague definitions of violent and sexually explicit material. So far these scrums haven't dealt with legislation that uses existing ratings as a guideline for restricting minors' access to games.

There were no cosponsors for the bill. Upon introduction, it was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.