Safe Games Illinois Act Interview at Gamecloud

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Gamecloud has interviewed Rod Blagojevich, Illinois Democratic governor who launched the safe games initiative and authorised the SafeGamesIllinois site. Here's an excerpt:

Gamecloud - First, what caused you to want to help sponsor a bill that would ban sales of games with violent and sexually explicit content to children?

Rod Blagojevich - It’s tough being a parent these days. It’s much more difficult than it was when my parents were raising my brother and me. When I was growing up, my mother spent a lot of time worrying about what my brother and I were doing outside of the home – who we were hanging around with and making sure we weren’t hanging around with the wrong kids. Nowadays, it’s a lot tougher. While the values parents are teaching their kids are very similar, the demands on parents are greater – they’re spending more time outside of the home and there are more dangers coming into the home.

Parents don’t need government to raise their kids. That’s their job. But government can help them protect their children from influences they may not want their kids exposed to. This law is all about empowering parents and giving them the tools they need to protect their kids, and giving them the ability to make decisions on the kinds of games their kids can play.

Personally, I believe the interview to be informative and I sympathise with the governor's points. However, many people express fear that further empowering the rating system could equal censorship in practice. Where do *you* stand?

Read the whole thing at Gamecloud.

 

Lets just say every company out there that has ANYTHING to do with video games is terrifyed of laywers... Havent you noticed the violence going WAY down in games no a days. Personally I could care less I just think the violence is a nice touch... But others dont and we can live if we shoot somebody in the head and no brains are splattered on the wall... It will also keep laggy online play down (in FPS' at least)

 

I remain with my opinion expressed in a previous news post: censorship is not bad if it is too protect children from harmfull content. I just don't trust the organs that do the judging to give accurate judging. Everybody has another definition of what is acceptable, so it is impossible to give accurate ratings. As such, the idea is good, but it is something for an utopic world, and in such a world, it would not be needed. Besides, it's like with porn magazines/vids. Even if you are not supposed to buy them before adulthood, you probably still can (unofficially).