The latest proposed law aimed at the videogame industry was creat...

N. Miami City Council is trying to pass an ordinance that would restrict sales of violent games to kids. Take-Two declined comment, but Entertainment Software Assn. (ESA) Pres. Douglas Lowenstein said Tues. that “federal courts have consistently ruled that efforts to restrict the sale of all entertainment media, including interactive games, based on their content are unconstitutional restrictions on creative expression.” As an example, he said: “Last year, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of the very Washington state law cited by the [N. Miami] Council as a basis for its ordinance… The Council apparently ignored findings reported by Washington state’s own Department of Health concluding that ‘current research evidence is not supportive of a major public concern that violent videogames lead to real-life violence.'” Like before, Lowenstein said: “Beyond the legal realities, the Federal Trade Commission has reported that parents are involved in the purchase or rental of games 83% of the time. In other words, when kids do get Mature-rated games it’s usually with their parents’ knowledge and no law known to man can mandate sound parenting. Finally, the statute is unnecessary. Leading retailers recently announced an all-out commitment to implement voluntary systems to prevent the sale of Mature-rated games to persons under 17. In fact, the National Institute on Media & the Family recently found that in cases where stores have policies to enforce the Mature-rating, sales of M-rated games to minors are prevented 70% of the time, a level surpassing that achieved by movie theaters in preventing minors’ entry into R-rated films.”