CNET News has an article about Congress’s video-game conviction:
All else aside, it is not the job of Congress to legislate video games. Nowhere in the Constitution is Congress given the authority to regulate any form of entertainment. (Yes, people had entertainment in the 1700s: the theater, etc.) The States, however, are given such authority under the Tenth Amendment: Since Congress cannot legislate entertainment, the States—or their counties, districts, or cities—can.
Of course, the Constitution’s text will be summarily ignored, and Congress will pass regulations on video games. Supporters of Congress’s actions will duly ignore the ignorance Congress gives movies and praise the legislation as “moral,” “good for freedom,” and “the American thing to do.”
What is the American thing to do, anyway? Judging by all the wars we’ve waged, I’d say the American thing to do would be to bomb the video game developers and publishers.
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The purported problem of violent and sexually explicit video games has resurfaced on politicians’ agenda as the November election draws near.What about violent and sexually explicit films?
A U.S. House of Representatives committee on consumer protection says it will hold a hearing on the topic later this month, with a focus on “informing parents and protecting children” from the alleged dangers of those types of games.I think the House is a tad late on “ ‘informing parents and protecting children’ from the alleged dangers of those types of games”—twelve years too late, as a matter of fact. The ESRB has been rating video games since it was established in 1994.
All else aside, it is not the job of Congress to legislate video games. Nowhere in the Constitution is Congress given the authority to regulate any form of entertainment. (Yes, people had entertainment in the 1700s: the theater, etc.) The States, however, are given such authority under the Tenth Amendment: Since Congress cannot legislate entertainment, the States—or their counties, districts, or cities—can.
Of course, the Constitution’s text will be summarily ignored, and Congress will pass regulations on video games. Supporters of Congress’s actions will duly ignore the ignorance Congress gives movies and praise the legislation as “moral,” “good for freedom,” and “the American thing to do.”
What is the American thing to do, anyway? Judging by all the wars we’ve waged, I’d say the American thing to do would be to bomb the video game developers and publishers.
[+] Add to your del.icio.us.
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