Video games scrutinized, new bill seeks "violent" warning labels

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(CBS News) A new bill has been submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives that will require most video games to include a warning label that states: "WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior."

Introduced by Rep. Joe Baca and Rep. Frank Wolf, H.R. 4204 would require any game rated "E" (Everyone), "Everyone 10+" (Everyone 10 and older), ''T'' (Teen), ''M'' (Mature) or ''A'' (Adult) by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB). That only leaves games rated with "EC" (Early Childhood) unaffected by the bill.

If passed, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) would have 180 days to make sure that the ESRB include the new labels on games - violent or not.

"The video game industry has a responsibility to parents, families and to consumers - to inform them of the potentially damaging content that is often found in their products," Baca told The Hill. "They have repeatedly failed to live up to this responsibility.

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Violence in video games has been a contentious issue for decades. Video game opponents attribute aggressive behavior to exposure to violent games. On the other hand, not all games are violent and studies have shown they can improve cognitive skills.

A recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology concluded violent video games desensitized players to violent imagery. Further testing showed that subjects who played games like "Killzone" or "Grand Theft Auto" showed more aggressive behavior against opponents.

"A single exposure to a violent video game won't turn someone into a mass murderer," Dr. Bartholow, associate professor of psychology at the University of Missouri, told CBS News. "But if someone has repeatedly exposed themselves, these kinds of effects in the short term can turn into long-term changes."

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On the flip side, there have also been studies that video games can improve cognitive skills. Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester, discussed the conclusion of 20 studies conducted on the topic with the National Public Radio show "Morning Edition" in 2010.

"Her studies show that video gamers show improved skills in vision, attention and certain aspects of cognition," said "Morning Edition" correspondent Michelle Trudeau. "And these skills are not just gaming skills, but real-world skills. They perform better than non-gamers on certain tests of attention, speed, accuracy, vision and multitasking."

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[JimothyB]

As a life long gamer who started gaming playing the most extreme violent video games of the time like Wolfenstein and Mortal Kombat I'm now an adult and I continue to play video games including the most extreme and violent games.

Here's how a lifetime of repeated and extended exposure affected me. I'm a pacifist and a vegetarian. I get light headed at the sight of blood. Once as a teenager I was pressured into killing a dying baby bird by stepping on it and I'm still bothered by the experience.

How many decades of repeated exposure on an almost daily basis does it take for the blood thirsty aggression to show itself?

Out of touch idiots, scared of a new media form they don't really understand. These issues will go away in a few decades when more of people from my generation who grew up gaming get into office, at the same time more of the voting population will be gamers as well. Once that happens politicians will stop trying to appeal to these old, out of touch Fox News viewers who make up the majority of reliable voters.

[Verkruk]

Bogus argument.
The video game industry already fulfills its so called responsibility to parents, families and consumers. Its called the ESRB and it, unlike the movie rating system, is a very specific system. On the back of each game next to the rating of said game it outlines in a succinct and no no nonsense manner just why that game is rated the way it is.
Be it blood, violence, gore, language, mature themes, sexual content, violence, drug use or reference.

The failure is not on the game industry, but on the parents and guardians that refuse to actually participate in their children's lives and or actual be a parent to them and tell them No, or to get educated on the subject matter. Instead they expect a fast food type approach where they expect it to be handed to them on a platter with a butler that will do all the hard stuff for them.

This is nothing but a repetitive, harmful and ultimately, yet again, ignorant piece of legislative baloney.

[ckoadiyn]

I am with you there you hit it on the head.

[Wookiee-1138]

Oh, look. It's this crap again.

Politicians and idiot lawyers have been making fools of themselves over this for almost 20 years. From Joe Liberman's perjurious testimony about Night Trap (seriously, he should have been thrown out for his patently false claims) to good 'ol Jack of Miami sending porn to judges thinking it would help his case to Leland Yee making constipated faces.

[gwatson47]

Stupid frivolous law. Supreme court said that ratings binding is unconstitutional. Since ratings are already voluntary. All publisher would have to do is stop rating the games.