Joe Baca, a Democratic Congressman in the United States hailing from California, has introduced new legislation in the House of Representatives which will require all video games that are rated T or higher by the Entertainment Software Rating Board to have a special warning label.
The proposed law says that the label would read: “WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior.”
The bill is similar to a previous
piece of legislation introduced by Baca, called Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009.
In order for it to progress to a full debate, it needs to be evaluated by the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, which has not found the time or the will to consider it until now.
Baca probably reintroduced his bill because more Republicans, a lot of them freshmen, have changed the structure of the House.
One of the co-sponsors of the new bill, Frank Wolf, a Republican, has stated, “Just as we warn smokers of the health consequences of tobacco, we should warn parents - and children - about the growing scientific evidence demonstrating a relationship between violent video games and violent behavior.”
He added, “As a parent and grandparent, I think it is important people know everything they can about the extremely violent nature of some of these games.”
The only problem with the line of reasoning introduced by the two Congressmen is that there is no definitive proof linking video game based violence with actual behavior in the real world.
Meanwhile studies are showing that video games can have positive effects on players, so maybe the warning should also spell out the advantages of playing.
More than 30 percent of the video games published in the United States have a rating over T for Teen and many of the big sellers, including
Call of Duty in all its installments, have this rating.
The industry fears that extra warning labels might lead to a decrease in overall sales.
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