HB257, a twice-amended version of a bill that failed to pass the committee on previous occasions, was scribed by Utah Republican representative David L. Hogue and modifies the criminal code as it pertains to material that is considered harmful to minors. The language of the bill directly targets retailers and anyone else who might encourage a minor to purchase a video game containing content that features “nudity, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse.”
The pared down version passed the Utah House committee with a 7-2 vote and is now headed for the Utah House of Representatives for debate. Previous versions of the Hogue bill failed to pass the House committee after original language referred to sexually explicit games as “obscene.” The former bill also was criticized as being overly broad in its focus on other types of media.
Response to the committee’s approval of the bill garnered instant criticism from the Entertainment Software Association and the ACLU, according to industry watchdog site GamePolitics.com.
"This bill is not needed,” ESA spokesperson Scott Sabey said in his testimony infront of the Utah committee. “More importantly, the bill will be challenged as unconstitutional. To plug violence into an obscenity statute won't work."
Hogue’s defense of HB257 was that it was more than a “message bill." He told Utah’s Daily Herald that the bill identifies the effects that different media has on children.
As the bill now stands in its amended form, the definition of nudity includes anything from full frontal, bare buttocks to female breasts, and sexual conduct is defined as “acts of masturbation, sexual intercourse or any touching of person’s clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks.”
The Entertainment Software Rating Board, which was set in place by ESA in 1994 to monitor the video game industry, has a two-part rating system that includes rating symbols that suggest age appropriateness for the game and content descriptors that indicate elements in a game that may have triggered a particular rating and/or may be of interest or concern.
In July, the ESRB advised retailers to stop selling the popular video game “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” after it was discovered that the game contained an explicit “pornographic” scene.
On a similar front, there is federal legislation afoot that would prevent the sale to minors of video games classified as “violent’ or “mature” that is backed by Sen. Hillary Clinton. The proposed bill, called the Family Entertainment Protection Act, mirrors several existing state laws already passed in Illinois, Michigan and California. The law would impose hefty fines on violators and require retailers to face annual audits.
“I have developed legislation that will empower parents by making sure their kids can’t walk into a store and buy a video game that has graphic, violent and pornographic content,” Clinton said.