The latest in a series of proposed laws seeking to regulate violent video games, HB 257, didn't make it past a Utah Senate committee in the recent legislative session, but proponents of the bill and similar controversial legislation in states around the nation aren't backing down.

A U.S. Senate committee made the latest move toward curbing violent video games when members approved the Children Media Research and Advancement Act Wednesday, March 8, 2006. The legislation, if passed by Congress, would authorize a study on the effects of electronic media, including video games, on children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are slated to administer the study. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., among others, are sponsoring the bill.

Should the researchers find a substantial link between media violence and harm to children, bills across the United States similar to Utah's HB 257 would have the potential to find more favor in state and national governments in the future.

Clinton compared violence in media to "a disease that, if left untreated, will become an epidemic" on her Web site.

Utah advocates have expressed similar feelings. Supporters of HB 257, which would have put "inappropriate violence" in video games in the same category as pornography and made it illegal for minors to view, argued that viewing and playing violent video games leads children and young adults to confuse the entertainment with reality.

"Kids play these games and they think there's some truth to it," said Sgt. Bud Walker of the Provo Police Department. "Then, when they're in a real-life situation, they react in the way they see in the games."

Similar legislation has been proposed before approximately a half-dozen state legislatures, including Michigan, California and Indiana, in the past year, garnering the attention of national leaders and organizations. In 2005, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., joined with the Arizona-based TASER Foundation, an organization that provides financial grants to the families of fallen police officers, in a call to stop video game retailers from carrying Eidos Interactive's "25 to Life," a game where players are rewarded for killing police officers. Schumer said such games "desensitize [children] to death and destruction," according to his Web site. He also asked PlayStation creator Sony and Microsoft, which created XBox, to terminate their licensing agreements with Eidos Interactive.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, whose mission is to commemorate the service of law enforcement officers, has also protested the sale of "25 to Life." In an effort to take the game out of U.S. stores, the fund posted a petition on its Web site, initially looking for 17,500 signatures. As of Thursday, the petition had garnered 239,796 signatures.

"We feel it's our responsibility to educate the public about law enforcement safety," said Bruce Mendelsohn, director of communications for the fund. "We're going to continue our efforts to make sure parents know what's in this game. Even one signature is significant because it means that one person is upset, and we have 200,000 people upset."

Utah lawmakers joined those in Illinois and Kansas, along with those in other states, in proposing violent video game legislation and, as it happened on Utah's Capitol Hill, none of the states have successfully implemented the legislation. For many opponents of the bill, the problems lie in the constitutionality of the measure.

"I felt [the bill] had constitutional problems," said state Rep. Neal Hendrickson, D-West Valley, who voted against HB 257 in the House. "The retail stores felt it was too hard and too restrictive. ... I thought it was a dumb idea."

U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly of Illinois expressed a similar opinion in his injunction against Illinois' attempted measure.

"Video games are generally designed to entertain players and viewers, but they can also inform and advocate viewpoints," he wrote in the injunction. "They are therefore considered protected expression under the First Amendment."

And not everyone thinks that video games are responsible for crimes committed by young adults. The Entertainment Software Association, a strong opponent of such legislation, has cited statistics stating that there is no causal link between playing video games and adolescent violence.

"Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990s while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use," representatives of the association said on the company's Web site.

Opponents of measures like HB 257 have also expressed concern about the state taking the responsibility for deciding what children see.

"It is the responsibility of the parent to decide what his or her children see," said Scott Sabey, an attorney for Fabian & Clendenin of Salt Lake City and who lobbied against HB 257. "That's a parental choice."

The issue continues to be a hot button with many national leaders and will most likely face debate in other areas of the United States in the coming year.

(For comments, e-mail Elizabeth Kasper at elizabeth.kasper@byu.edu)

Copyright Brigham Young University 13 Mar 2006