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Posted on 09/12/2005 12:52:12 PM PDT by absolootezer0
LANSING - Governor Jennifer M. Granholm today signed legislation that that will make the sale or rental of mature or adult-rated video games to children illegal. The new law applies to children age 17 and younger and will take effect on December 1, 2005.
"Making sure that our children are protected is an essential function of government," Granholm said. "This new common-sense law is one more tool we can provide to help parents protect their children from the effects of violence and graphic adult content."
Granholm first called for this type of legislation in her 2005 State of the State Address when she applauded Senator Hansen Clarke's untiring efforts on the issue. Senator Clarke (D-Detroit) and Representative Kathy Angerer (D-Bedford Twp.) were instrumental in getting the legislation passed and joined the Governor for today's event.
In May, a series of independent investigations conducted at the request of the Granholm Administration found that children as young as age nine were able to purchase adult-rated video games (rated M for Mature or NC-17) nearly half of the time. The investigations were conducted in Cass, Genesee, Ingham, Lenawee, Monroe, and Wayne counties and found that 26 of 58 stores in the six participating counties sold to minors. Among the games purchased were Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, Doom 3, Mortal Combat, and Resident Evil.
"The graphic nature and wide availability of these games should disturb all of us, whether or not we are parents," Granholm said. "I am proud to sign legislation that will protect children from this kind of content."
Granholm has been a long-time advocate on child protection issues. As governor, Granholm has worked hard to prompt action on the legislation being signed today as well as the package of bills passed two weeks ago that will provide greater protections for children from convicted sex offenders.
As attorney general, the Governor formed the High-Tech Crime Unit in conjunction with the Michigan State Police to crack down on Internet child pornographers and child predators. Attorney General Granholm took on retailers who made alcohol and cigarettes available to children and shut down Websites that sold the ingredients to make GHB, the "date rape" drug.
In addition to praising the efforts of Senator Clarke and Representative Angerer, Granholm also applauded law enforcement leaders who advocated on behalf of this legislation and who assisted with this summer's undercover operations. The Governor was joined by representatives of several local and county law enforcement agencies, including the Wayne County Sheriff's department.
At today's event, the Governor signed House Bill 4702 sponsored by Representative Phil Pavlov (R-St. Clair Township) and House Bill 4703 sponsored by Representative Tom Pearce (R-Rockford) which are part of a four-bill package. The two remaining bills, Senate Bill 416 sponsored by Senator Alan Cropsey (R-DeWitt) and Senate Bill 463 sponsored by Senator Gerald Van Woerkom (R-Norton Shores) have passed the Legislature and will be signed later in the week.
The legislation she proposes actually mandates that all children be aborted in order to prevent them from witnessing such games down the road.
My township supervisor is a democrat. On election day I talked to him outside the polling place and he said "That woman is a moron" I voted for him.
Our economy is in poor shape, and Granholm make a big deal over video games.....
Good one geniuses.
Now, If some kid comes up to me in a parking lot and presses some money into my hand to get him the latest Grand Theft Auto game, am I breaking the law by getting it for him?
It's always great to see a fearless politician get right out front on a controversial issue like this.
So original!
This is where liberal insanity meets the conservative brand - more government is fine and dandy so long as it's "for the children."
A liberal once told me that NASCAR should be outlawed because it promotes reckless driving.
I hope you forgot the sarcasm tag..
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does anyone remeber when they first started proposeing ratings for video games a lot of us on freerepublic said it was a bad idea because it would lead to legislation like this but we were tinfoil hat conspiracy moonbats becaeuse the ratings for video games were volantary not legislatd so theres no way pols would get into making laws agaisnt selling these games to anyone the reason the video game industry adopted these ratingsd is to avoid legislation who was right and who was wrong ?
like everything else, give a little, and gov't will take alot.
I am a bit disturbed by young children being able to walk into a store and buy such games themselves.
I don't care if parents choose to buy games rated mature for their children, because I don't buy into the hype that these games cause violence. However, I do think those decisions should be up to the parents, so they shouldn't be selling those games directly to kids.
I however doubt anything good will come from the government getting involved.
She. Must. Go.
And the people vetoed her.
"Making sure that our children are protected is an essential function of government,"
Uuuum. Actually.. that would be PARENTS.
Parents are responsible for that.
Oops, I put the words "responsible" and "parent" in the same sentence... how insensetive of me.
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