Sen. Clinton Wants Video Game Access Probe

Sen. Clinton Wants Video Game Access Probe

The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 13, 2005; 11:46 PM

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has attacked violent video games as "a silent epidemic" among children, said she wants a federal investigation into one of the most popular, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."

Clinton, D-N.Y., is asking the Federal Trade Commission to probe how users of the game can access "graphic pornographic and violent content" for the game from the Internet.


In a letter dated Thursday to FTC chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras, she also urged the agency to examine whether the game's rating of "M" for mature should be changed to an "Adults Only" rating.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board, a self-regulatory ratings arm of the game software industry, is already investigating the issue.

New York's junior senator said it is time for the federal government to step in.

"There is no doubting the fact that the widespread availability of sexually explicit and graphically violent video games makes the challenge of parenting much harder," Clinton said in her missive seeking an FTC investigation.

The senator is also pushing legislation that would make it harder for young kids to get access to such content.

Even before her election to the Senate, Clinton spoke out against the amount of sexual and violent content available to children.

In March, Clinton delivered a speech to the Kaiser Family Foundation in which she called media sex and violence "a silent epidemic" among children, and sought federal research into how exposure to such graphic content affects young minds.

In that speech to media experts and child advocates, she singled out "Grand Theft Auto" as particularly harmful, saying it "has so many demeaning messages about women and so encourages violent imagination and activities and it scares parents.... They're playing a game that encourages them to have sex with prostitutes and then murder them. You know, that's kind of hard to digest."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...071302551.html

Now the latest is that she asks for legislation that will make selling M- or AO-rated games to minors a federal crime.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07...s_6129040.html

It's nice to know she has her priorities straight.


God forbid this woman ever become president.

Originally Posted by Captain Cornflake

It's nice to know she has her priorities straight.


God forbid this woman ever become president.

Capn, that's almost as bad as Osama Bin-Laden's criticism of President Bush reading "a story about a goat" to children. *clears throat*

I have to admit, San Andreas is not a game for children. I heard, two days ago, that there is now a downloadable patch which allows you to make the characters actually engage in sexual intercourse in the game. I mean really, truly it being done right there. THAT definitely is something I'm sure Senator Clinton is trying to get a reign on. ..perhaps for more varied reasons than one might at first suppose.

No matter what, this IS in the best interest of America. Someone has to address these things. I'm sure she's listening to the voice of her voter-base.

This is very good, I enjoy the grand theft auto part, but what good does all the sex and violence do to people, call me a hipacrit but I thing there is something really wrong with people who want "sex" in a game of wants to violently beat someone to death, whether its in a game or not.

I say more power to Senator Clinton. Games like that shouldn't even exist. It's pointless and stupid. Children in America are bombarded with acts of violence and sexual content everyday, I would like it if every time I watched a commercial or looked at a advertisement or played a video game, I wouldn't have close my eyes in embarassment at the half naked people or suggestive themes. Someone does have to address these issues, and it would be good if selling M or AO rated games to minors became a fedral crime. It wouldn't bother me, because those games go against my moral values. Maybe when they say "Grand Theft Auto" they should also include the rest of the content in the name. Lots of M rated games are fun, just not the part that makes them M rated.

What some people said about the PTC attempting to place tv under stricter control also applies to this.

"My parents raised me with the idea that certain things were for adults only. For the government to interfere with my job because parents can't handle their responsibilities is unconscionable. I've got a message for concerned parents: Do your job, and raise your kids. Don't let them sit in front of the TV, staying up until 11 p.m. Put books in their rooms instead of TVs and video games.
Legislation is not the answer."
"What is truly obscene is the self-appointed thought police butting into other people's lives. If they are truly concerned about families and children, they ought to use their time and money to address real problems like homelessness, the lack of health care and the poisoning of our environment."
-Letters to Time Magazine

Sure, while porn in a video game is definately a bad thing, and should be addressed, restricting sales of other games because of one series is bull. The parents should be the ones with responsibility, not the government!

She's being way too harsh. AO, I can understand. That's veeeeeeeeeery explicit stuff there. In fact, only a few games have made it to that rating. But M-rated games should be left alone. There are M-rated games that only just deserve the rating, or that got it because they were very realistic.
And there's plenty of stuff worse than a few videogames. How about stronger laws against domestic violence?

Edit: Many games include violence because it's a part of the story. When something adds to the plot, I think it's justified, as long as it doesn't go into full-blown porno.

Why I Hate Living in New York, Reason #4.

Senator Hillary Clinton.

There's no reason for video game ratings to be treated any differently from Movie Ratings.

I think Hilary's on the right track -- kids with parents who don't mind the content of Mature rated games can still get their mature rated games. The rest will have a much harder time. That's how it should be.

I agree with her on restricting sale of M and Adults Only games. If only Australia got an 18+ rating for videogames...anyway, while it is a parent's responsibility to ensure that their kids aren't watching or playing or listening to things that they feel is inapporpriate for them, imposing punishment for those that breach the M and AO would prevent those that go behind their parent's back from getting a copy of an unsuitable game.

As for the 'Hot Coffee' GTA: SA patch...Well, I've seen some pics of it over at http://iftheywannafinditthey'llfinditthanks.com (Warning: This article has links to sexually explicit, in a polygonal way, images) and when I saw them I burst out laughing. It just looked ridiculous. Rockstar claim, though, that the explicit content was created by hackers and is not in the original game anywhere. The person who found this claims that all they did was unlock this area of the game.

OK. Reasoning.

Clinton, D-N.Y., is asking the Federal Trade Commission to probe how users of the game can access "graphic pornographic and violent content" for the game from the Internet.

In a letter dated Thursday to FTC chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras, she also urged the agency to examine whether the game's rating of "M" for mature should be changed to an "Adults Only" rating.

Note those words. "From the Internet." She is basically wasting taxpayer money to find out how people are hacking their copies of the game, then pinning the blame on GTA by urging the game get an AO rating for explicit sexuality that hackers are putting in their own copies of the game.

Does anybody besides me see a problem with that?

Mr Spork

Originally Posted by The Rules

Keep everything on the forums legal. Links to web sites with ROMs, illegal mp3 downloads, pornography, extreme violence, or anything else considered "indecent" shouldn't be posted. If you're in doubt as to posting something, then by all means feel free to ask about it.

It might be wise to get rid of that link.

--
I'm not sure if it's state or national (US) law that M-rated games can only be sold to kids 17+, unless they have an adult with them. That should be more strictly enforced, meanwhile, other things need to be focused on.

What about pornography on the Internet? It's much easier to get than it is to get something like GTA. If they're so worried about this, then why not hit a major source?
And as has been said- parents really need to work harder on raising their children. Things just aren't going to get any easier.

-IANVS

Hm well, I like GTA SA, and I like to play it, a lot. But then again, I'm over 17, I'm allowed to play this game without my parents concent.

If a kid wants to play a game like this, parents should be given some sort of heads up, not just a label saying "Violent content, sexual inneundo, thats bullcrap. Mario has violence. There needs to be perhaps a short DVD of the game that parents can watch before their children can buy/play the game.

Does this Senator think that she has to babysit the children of America? That's not why she was elected. Parents should watch their children and decide what they can play, not the government.

Grand Theft Auto? I've seen it played. Sure, it can be bad - but I've seen other games just as bad that are fine unless the person's mind is already twisted into doing bad things. There's a game where you can force a girl to cook, clean, do it with 7 guys, never bathe or work, never eat or sleep, and then turn around and slap her and insult her until she's in tears and hates your guts. Granted, it's not the point of the game but it's fully possible. This game has a teen rating. The game I am mentioning, for those who haven't guessed, is The Sims.

How can you blame the people selling the game? Going to sue Maxis for selling the Sims to kids? If parents don't monitor their own kids enough, you can't blame the gaming industry. Even if the parents do monitor their kids, if they don't bother to stop them, then why does Hillary have to play the parent?

Games don't make kids violent; they're like that already. Brooks Brown once said, "The worst game for kids is Halo 2, because the moment you sign on and play on Live, 11 year olds yell things at you that would make Eminem cry." Halo 2 is not full of cuss words; it's the kids doing it. Let Hillary figure that out sometime.

Thank you.

I would not buy GTA for a six year old. Its not a game for kids. Sure, no one wants to see our rights taken away, but I mean its GTA.

I really dont see the problem with making the selling of M or AO games to kids illigal. Its like that with movies. But I do think changing the rating is bull****. ESRB is not owned by the government and has the right to rate games in how ever matter they wish.

It truly saddens me when I see things like this. As an upper-classmen in my school, I see kids my age or younger running around saying,

"Have you played that GTA San Andreas games? It's really really fun, so funny!"
"You know you can have sex with hookers and then kill them for their money, right?"
"Ya, thats the funnest when the cars all rocking back and forth, they must have poser hydraulics or sumthin'! Word!"
"And your parents let you play this?"
"My uncle bought it for my for my birthday!"

It's the jobs of the parents to make sure their children are not being exposed to content they consider "impure" or "adult". The ESRB is in place for a reason-- and if parents choose to ignore the simple, but effective, guidelines put in place to help them make the decisions on which games are best for the age group of their child. Some adolescents are able to distinguish right from wrong in video game context at a very early age, and are ready to play most mature games in their early teens. Some people in their late teens have a mental imbalance that causes them to commit crimes based on movies and video games. That, and the video game industry is a really convenient scapegoat. If a parent wouldn't take their child to see Sin City, would they buy them Halo 2 or GTA? Probably more likely, which is sad.

We don't need any more laws governing what we can and cannot buy. Maybe GTA (it is after all, a horrible game depicting explicit scenes of mature and socially unacceptable actions which are violent and often demeaning to women. Real women can stick up for themselves, thank you very much) does deserve a AO rating, but in the end, if the parents are too ignorant to pay attention to the convenient ESRB rating in the corner of the box, they've already urinated in the gene pool enough. The damage is done. Get over it.

Originally Posted by Janus

Mr Spork


It might be wise to get rid of that link.

The actual article has no pornographic content. It does link to screenshots of the 'Hot Coffee' thing, but it does have several notable warnings advising people of the content of said links. As the actual article I have linked to does not contain pornographic content, I feel that it should stay. Also, the article comes from reputable Gaming Magazine Website, Australian GamePro. As GamePro is a magazine targeted at gamers of all ages, the website would be accessed by people of all ages and as such their main articles would have to be suitable for all ages. In this case, the article has no pornographic content but does link to screenshots of 'Hot Coffee' AFTER several warnings about the content of the links. If a mod disagrees, however, that's fine.

Anyway, it's rather interesting to note that Rockstar did not comment for a few days before stating that it was entirely the work of hackers. Points to the possibility that it was not the work of hackers.