PSP World

Utah Game Advertising Bill is a Step Backwards

It is not only Great Britain that has taken an uninformed political stance against the video game industry. Yesterday the Utah Senate passed Bill HB 353, also called the “Truth in Advertising” bill. This new legislation is extremely worrying to the video game industry because it is perversely designed to override the voluntary game ratings program established by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). This new law will actually do the opposite of what mostly everyone wants, and will make it easier for violent games to find their way into the hands of children.

The ESRB, founded in response to complaints about violence in video games in the mid-1990s, is a national body that rates video games based on their content and displays appropriate ages on the front of video games packaged in the United States. Retailers have voluntarily agreed to abide by the ESRB rules and avoid selling mature-rated games to minors. In a recent survey carried out by the Federal Trade Commission, it was found that on average, American retailers were compliant with the under-17 rule about 80 per cent of the time. In Utah where retailers are stricter, the video game retailers were found to be compliant 94% of the time.

This was evidently not good enough for the recently-disbarred Jack Thompson, who penned the bill that is now about to be passed into law by Utah governor Jon Huntsman.

Bill 353 will effectively kill the ESRB in Utah, by making it illegal to advertise games as “Mature Only” in stores. If a retailer is caught selling such a game to a minor, they will face serious criminal sanctions and fines from the government. In order to become compliant with this new bill, retailers effectively have only one choice: just stop labeling games as “Mature” altogether. That way, they will perversely be brought in line with the new rule, because they will be making no promise to keep the games out of the hands of children.

This absolutely ridiculous legislation turns back the clock on more than a decade of hard work by self-regulating agencies like the ESRB. It is simply designed to help push a conservative agenda of stirring up moral panic and building support for an eventual ban of mature games altogether, something that Thompson has publicly stated he would like to see happen.

Video game companies, journalists and fans need to fight this legislation together to ensure that it doesn’t get out of Utah. The government should support the hard work of the ESRB, which already ensures that parents and consumers are informed about the content of video games.