Issue Position: Fighting for Wisconsin Families - Video Game Violence

Issue Position

Issue Position: Fighting for Wisconsin Families - Video Game Violence

Over the past seven years I have worked closely with Senator Lieberman to address the issue of violent video games and children. At our insistence, the video game industry has developed entertainment's best rating system, has applied that rating system uniformly to the packaging of every video game sold in stores, and has promulgated aggressive anti-targeting provisions aimed at keeping the advertisement of violent, Mature-rated games away from children.

Every year it seems that we have new progress to report, but we also have new challenges to confront. For example, the majority of retailers have failed to enact or enforce limitations on the sale of Mature-rated games to children. And we have seen the small segment of violent games become even more graphic and horrifying. What's worse, one of these games, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, is flying off the shelves at a record-shattering pace and volume. The popularity of the most violent games coupled with the unfettered access that retailers give to children combine to create a real problem. The picture only gets worse when we consider the growing body of scholarly research on the behavioral effects of interactive gaming

The video game industry has the most informative rating system in the entertainment industry - if we can ensure its reliability, we and the video game industry can feel as though we're giving parents a truly effective tool to help determine what entertainment content is appropriate for their children.

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