The initiative would see SimCity labeled as violent

Jan 17, 2013 22:03 GMT  ·  By

Diane Franklin, a Republic representative hailing from Missouri, is proposing a new sales tax imposed on violent video games, designed to decrease interest in them in the wake of the shooting that took place in December at Sandy Hook in Newtown.

The revenue obtained from the 1 percent tax would be used to finance mental health programs for troubled teens in order to stop future incidents.

The problem with the legislative proposal, according to PC Gamer, is that it qualifies all the titles that have received a Teen, Mature or Adult Only rating from the Entertainment Software Association as violent video games.

This means that even totally non-violent experiences like The Sims or SimCity would be subjected to the tax, essentially promoting the idea that all video games are somehow connected to real-world violent events.