Illinois videogame ban unconstitutional

U.S. District Court Judge ruled Illinois' attempt to restrict the sales of sexually explicit and violent video games is unconstitutional. Now I don't deny that it can be very harmful to kids to go on killing sprees or engage in lewd sexual behavior (a la Grand Theft Auto), however putting the blame for this on to the retail industry is dead wrong.

I worked at EB Games a couple of years ago when the newest iteration of GTA came out. I wasn't surprised that the store was packed - I was surprised at how many kids with their parent's permission bought the game! The youngest I saw must have been around 10. Then when little Johnny goes out and starts assaulting women or goes on a shooting rampage with dad's gun, the finger gets pointed at the retailer who sold it. What about the parent's responsibility?

I'm not letting the retail industry off, though. There is a rating system already in place, and although it has some flaws, in general, it gets the message across about a game's content. In this rating system, it is against most stores' policies to sell a mature rated game to anyone under 17 without parental consent. If a store blindly sells a mature game without asking for ID, then they should be punished.

And if a mature game winds up in the hands of a kid, then the parents should be punished.