Stupid Story of the Week: Congress Proposing Bill to Label All Violent Games Like Tobacco Products

Collapse
X
 
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • Shawn Zipay
    Managing Communities 24/7
    • Apr 2003
    • 69279

    #1

    Stupid Story of the Week: Congress Proposing Bill to Label All Violent Games Like Tobacco Products

    This is right up there with SOPA in terms of how incredibly mis-informed and woefully out of touch the U.S. Congress is as they are proposing a new bipartisan bill (H.R. 4202) called the "Violence in Video Games Labeling Act".

    This bill will adorn all remotely violent games with a lable that reads "WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior." Yes, this is right up there with the same warnings that go on tobacco products.

    Virginia Rep. and the bill's co-sponsor, Frank Wolf, had this to say:

    "Just as we warn smokers of the health consequences of tobacco, we should warn parents — and children — about the growing scientific evidence demonstrating a relationship between violent video games and violent behavior."


    By the way, there are scientific studies that say there is zero correlation between gaming and aggressive behavior.

    In a statement provided to Gamasutra, the Entertainment Software Association's Rich Taylor denied that any links exist between violent games and violent behavior: "Representative Baca's facially unconstitutional bill — which has been introduced to no avail in each of six successive Congressional sessions, beginning in 2002 — needlessly concerns parents with flawed research and junk science.

    "Numerous medical experts, research authorities, and courts across the country, including the United States Supreme Court, exhaustively reviewed the research Representative Baca uses to base his bill and found it lacking and unpersuasive. Independent scientific researchers found no causal connection between video games and real life violence."


    It'd be nice if people just pulled their heads out of their asses before proposing stuff like this, especially if they're going to pull the claim about their comments being backed by "scientific research" when that is not at all the case.
  • Thortok2000
    Dominant
    • Sep 2026
    • 382

    #2
    Cool beans, I think you just gave me a topic to argue against for my research paper in my English 101 class in college. "The Violence in Video Games Labeling Act is stupid and should not become law."

    Comment

    • DunkinSPE
      OT's Daddy Warbucks
      • Aug 2006
      • 452

      #3
      Ironically filing yearly tax returns has been linked to aggressive and violent behavior against political representatives and other government employees.Or maybe thats just me?
      "We're all very different people. We're not Watusi. We're not Spartans. We're Americans, with a capital 'A', huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We're the underdog. We're mutts! Here's proof: his nose is cold! But there's no animal that's more faithful, that's more loyal, more loveable than the mutt." -John Winger (Bill Murray) Stripes

      Comment

      • jimykx
        No, I AM your father!
        • Jan 2010
        • 6641

        #4
        Re: Stupid Story of the Week: Congress Proposing Bill to Label All Violent Games Like Tobacco Products

        It's not that I have been playing a lot of games or anything, but I wish I could spank these guys till death

        Comment

        Working...