LOS ANGELES (February 21, 2007) – The Parents Television Council™ is calling on the Indiana State Senate to pass the bill that would prevent video game retailers from selling Mature (M rated) or Adult Only (AO rated) video games to minors.  The Indiana Senate Technology Committee passed the legislation, and the next step is for the Senate to vote on the bill.

 

"Currently, a ten-year-old could purchase a Mature or Adult Only-rated video game.  There are voluntary guidelines that tell retailers not to sell these products to children, but they have been a failure due to their voluntary nature and the lack of any consequence.  The legislation (SB 238) proposed by Sen. David Ford takes the industry's own guidelines and makes them law," said Tim Winter, president of the PTC™.

 

"The multi-billion dollar video game industry is fighting this legislation as they have in the more than a dozen states where it has been proposed.  In many of the other states the video game industry has poked holes in the bills passed by state legislatures and found judges that have been willing to stop these laws before they are put into effect.  Indiana, however, has improved upon the previous attempts.  By holding the industry accountable and relating this law to ESRB ratings, Indiana has given the industry the chance to establish the guidelines while the state handles the enforcement.

 

"If these games are marketed to and manufactured for adults as the industry insists, then their sale to unaccompanied minors should be restricted.  This solution protects our children without interfering with the rights of adults.  We place similar restrictions on the sale of firearms, tobacco, alcohol and pornography.  This is no different.

 

"The evidence is conclusive: countless independent studies confirm that repeated exposure to graphic sexual, violent and profanity-laced video games has a harmful and long term effect on children.

 

"Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine have used functional magnetic resonance imaging technology to observe which areas of the brain are stimulated when a subject plays violent video games.  Researchers concluded that violent video games cause changes in teenagers' brain function. Adolescents showed increased activation of the amygdala and decreased activation of the frontal lobe after playing violent video games.

 

"I regularly hear from parents who want all the help they can get to protect their children.  Many have trouble keeping up with what is in the latest games or which shows and movies should not be viewed by their children.  They want help to keep these games out of their kids' hands.

 

"The children of Indiana are being bombarded with sexual and violent images through video games.  The more than 23,000 members of the PTC in Indiana are calling for the passage of SB 238 to give parents another tool to protect their children from such harmful influences.  If voted into law, Indiana's solution will pave the way for common sense legislation across the country," Winter concluded.