Violent Video Game Tax Proposed In Pennsylvania

Pure idiocy. Tax the politician salaries by 10% instead, you'll make more.

Another year another politician trying to blame video games for something.

"One factor that may be contributing to the rise in, and intensity of, school violence is the material kids see, and act out, in video games"

Actually, school shooters (I assume that's what they mean by "school violence") play less than their classmates, not more. But I know facts and politicians have a strained relationship.

Violation of first amendment unless they can satisfy the "clear and present danger" test. They can't.

Other states have tried this and failed. Next.

What exactly is being a "violent video game" considered here?

They are stupidly out of the loop.

Current consoles have parental control in that if you try to boot up a game starting from a chosen rating (even E), you'll need to enter a password to boot up said game(s).

That, and even some T rated games have "gun violence", while not all M rated games have gun violence. So it's just screwed up from the get go.

If they were smart, they'd see there's no increase in knife (Assassin's Creed), or grenade incidents (Battlefront or Call of Duty), which are also featured in popular M rated franchises.

And there's Batman Arkham Knight, being one of the most "kid friendly" M rated games ever.

Why can't they accept they are in a country where they have psychos wanting to shoot people just for the heck of it?

We need to have more logical people in politics in the US, who sees problems where they actually are.

Even Republican gamers are face palming at that for Pete's sake!

Yet again, another delusional "solution."

Yeah, I know both sides are guilty, but the right has been on a roll with delusional "solutions" for a long long time.

This is a form of censoring free speech by putting price barriers in front of violent games. Also, it is probably unconstitutional to not tax ALL violent media, not just games. The Senator that keeps bringing this up is so out of touch it's amazing. So gamers have to fund protection for schools even though there's no link between games and violent behavior? **** this guy. I hate sin taxes.

By the way, if it doesn't work in Australia why the **** would it work here?

This guys thinking is "How can I raise taxes to pay for school security without pissing off my base?" Instead of doing the right thing, like raising property tax to pay for school security.

Lol maybe find a way to keep the 17+ games out of kids hands The parents are buying them anyways for them which completely voids the need to show ID when buying them.

Yes, this is exactly what we want our politicians doing.

Looking for some BS reason to appease the Karens who have to much time on their hands from the MLM business who think everything is evil and put a tax on something that is not understood so the money could go into some private business pocket.

...because by givingyour money to the government, they'll magically fix a cultural problem? Sure, that has worked, ever.

And people wonder why we torrent

Anything to suck the life out of people even more. For the most part video games have always been violent. The real reason for this tax is not for the protection of kids or society, it’s purely to take more money from people. Gaming has gotten bigger and bigger over the past decades and whenever the government sees that with an industry they want a share of the cake.

Because it specifically says violent, they are shooting them selves in the foot (pun intended). Racing games where you can bang into another car, vehicular assault there, how about mario kart and throwing things at other vehicles, can imagine that could be classified as violence or a 'sin', strong language and bullying is classified as assault along with intimidation. The list goes on and on, while the intelligence of politicians drop and drop. People troll on message boards, could doing something like this be called political trolling ?

The “Sin” tax, lol.

Oh, boy.

Well, hitting people where their wallets are is probably the most effective way to implement change (Not saying I agree with this proposal at all, however.) but with that being said I really don’t think this will have much of an effect on those already purchasing these kinds of games.

Personally, I think there are other problems that need to be addressed in relation to the issue and have much more of an impact then whether or not there is violence in a videogame.

-SIN CITY NINJA APPROVED-

'Explaining the bill last year, Quinn said violent video games might be an element in the rise of school shootings in America. "One factor that may be contributing to the rise in, and intensity of, school violence is the material kids see, and act out, in video games," he said.'

Do you know what the M-rating is? MATURE Content is generally suitable for ages 17 and up. May contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

At 17 most kids are either juniors or seniors in high school and it's doubtful that the "violence" of such games will have such a significant impact that it will cause them to do these violent things. If they are younger or much younger and getting access to these games, it falls on the parents responsibility for what their children are doing.

"the material kids see" and have been seeing for decade after decade on TV and in the movies but hey, why bother with that.

Also why bother add a tax to firearms and ammunition or hold those who allow access to them to minors accountable? Much of the issue is a lack of accountability but people refuse to see it.

This is illegal as ****.