Oklahoma Senate passes video game restriction bill

The Oklahoma State Senate has unanimously (47-0) passed HB 3004, which classifies games with "inappropriate violence" or sexual content as "harmful to minors", and bans the sale or rental of such broadly defined games to minors. This means, for all intents and purposes, Oklahoma is trying to classify these games as pornography, which is banned from minors in the same way.

ADVERTISEMENT

According to GameSpy, "The problem the game industry has with this bill is how broad its definitions are for what constitutes 'inappropriate violence.'" I'll go one more and add that similar laws have already been ruled unconstitutional as there is absolutely no evidence such games are "harmful to minors". The Oklahoma law will fail, too, so it's just another waste of taxpayers' money for a false feel good solution to a problem which could easily be resolved if the state, instead, opted to spend money educating parents (the people who buy 90% of these games) about games and game ratings. Sheesh.

The bill was sent back to the House for a couple of amendments, but, according to Gamespot those amendments have to do with signs for sexually oriented businesses. I told you this all had to do with porn.

For now, I'll share with you all the sounds inside my head when thinking of this bill, as provided by Steve Martin. Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Oklahoma!