In a 98-2 vote, the Michigan House of Representatives has passed House Bill 5949, which makes it a misdemeanor to sell or rent video games with an "M" or "AO" rating to children under 17 and 18, respectively. In other words, Michigan has decided to fine people who decline to abide by an arbitrary and voluntary rating system created and administered by the industry selling the product in question. If that sounds stupid to you, well, that's because it is. There is and never has been anything to keep the video game industry from giving say, GTA3 a Teen rating, just as the MPAA can rate movies however it chooses. Of course, if you think the stupidity ends there, you are grossly mistaken.

Enter this article in the Macomb Daily, and the very stupid people quoted within. Stupid Person Number 1 is Terri Tinsey, a Concerned Parent from Macomb Township. One day she discovered her 15-year-old son playing a violent video game she dissaproved of. Upon inquiry, she learned that her son had rented this game. So of course she went down to the video store, returned the game, and took her son off the list of people allowed to rent on her card, right? Wrong. She decided that she was not the problem here by allowing her son to rent whatever he wanted, but that someone else was to blame, and has been complaining about violent video games ever since. At the end of the article she is quoted as saying "as a parent, I have a right to say what my children will or will not be able to do. I believe in free speech and everything that goes with it, but I don't think blood-sucking zombies fall into that category." Yes, you do have that right Terri. It's called being present when your child rents or buys video games, or at least telling him what is suitable for him to rent or buy. And, I'm sorry to say, blood-sucking zombies _do_ fall into the free-speech category, as much as you or I may hate them(and I hate zombies with an undying passion).

Stupid Person Number 2 is State Representative Patricia Lockwood, who is responsible for saying "This bill will restore parental authority into the equation, and that is a good thing for parents and children alike in Michigan." So, it will restore parental authority by denying parents the ability to let their children purchase and rent these games on their own, while making sure the state takes over from parents who are too lazy to take responsibility for what their children do in their spare time. "I think that this bill will ensure that parents, not retailers, are making the decisions regarding what their kids should be exposed to," Lockwood stated, but this is entirely untrue. Parents were able to make those decisions before this bill was passed. The fact that they were choosing not to is by no means the retailers' fault. They were just trying to make money by doing what they do: sell and/or rent video games. This is akin to saying a vending machine is at fault because it sold a snickers bar to a diabetic child while the child's parent was reading a book.

Finally, Stupid Person Number 3 is actually the National Institute on Media and the Family, which released a study that claimed "children who are least aggressive in nature but are exposed to violent video games are more likely to get into fights than children who are very aggressive but do not play violent video games," thereby bringing grand new meanings to the words passive and agressive.

Look, its not that I want 7-year-olds to be simulating drive-bys or slaughtering zombie hordes(that's my job), I'm just saying the state does not have the responsibilty to make sure that doesn't happen. Those Concerned Parents out there who push for this kind of stuff clearly have no idea what it means to be a parent. I don't profess to have any kids, but I do know from experience as a child that the best way to keep your child from what you see as negative influences is to take some responsibility and involve yourself in their lives enough to make sure they don't get exposed to those influences. If that means going with them to the video store, then do it. Don't waste taxpayer money by making the government do it, its not the government's job to raise your child.

-David 'Klep' Kleppinger, Raving Lunatic

UPDATE: Ish found the bill! Go Ish! The corroborating articles are still there too.

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