For a long time, videogames have been looked at like the spawns of an outsider culture, a mark of those who were different. In a short span of time, the same videogames have become a mark of addiction, of those who need to be warned about the dangers of sitting down and playing titles like
Gears of War 2, Condemned 2 or Resistance 2.
Joe Baca, a Republican Congressman from California, has proposed that videogames should be labeled just as cigarettes are labeled to mark them as being dangerous. The bill he introduced has been co-sponsored by another Republican, Frank Wolf, and it is aimed at both games sold in traditional brick and mortar stores and at those distributed digitally. Labels would only be applied to those games rated T, for an audience of over 13. The name of the proposed legislation is “The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009.”
What could a potential buyer read on the warning, which is to be displayed prominently on the packaging of any title? The test would go as follows, “WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior.”
The Congressman released a press statement saying that “The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families, and to consumers – to inform them of the potentially damaging content that is often found in their products. They have repeatedly failed to live up to this responsibility. Meanwhile research continues to show a proven link between playing violent games and increased aggression in young people. American families deserve to know the truth about these potentially dangerous products.”
Like other recent initiatives aimed to restrict the sales of videogames, the “The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009” will probably fail because of the lack of clear evidence linking violence and videogames and because of the singling out of
videogames among other forms of media.
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