Indianapolis mayor signs law restricting youth access to violent video games

By The Associated Press

07.18.00

Printer-friendly page

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, center, answers questions yesterday about the violent video games ordinance, as City-County Councillor Rozelle Boyd, right, and Fraternal Order of Police President Lt. Dave Young, left, look on at the City-County Building.

INDIANAPOLIS — Coin-operated video games in which characters are decapitated, dismembered, mutilated or maimed will soon be off-limits to children following the enactment of a city-wide violent video game ordinance.

Mayor Bart Peterson signed the ordinance into law yesterday, saying it was an opportunity for the city to put its foot down on what he called a burgeoning culture of violence.

The ordinance requires coin-operated games featuring graphic violence or strong sexual content to have warning labels and be kept at least 10 feet from nonviolent games. They must also be separated by a curtain or wall so minors cannot view them. The law bars people under the age of 18 from such games unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Peterson called the ordinance — believed to be the first of its kind in a major U.S. city — a necessary first step.

"The importance of it is that it's an effort to begin to attack the culture of violence that I believe surrounds our young people these days virtually from the day they're born," the mayor said.

The ordinance will go into effect Sept. 1 and will be enforced by the Indianapolis Police Department and the Marion County Sheriff's Department. Businesses violating the new rules could be fined $200 a day for each violation, and a business with three violations in one year could be forbidden from offering violent games or have its amusement license revoked.

Elliott Portnoy, an attorney representing national coin-operated video game industry groups, said his clients are considering taking legal action against the city.

"From the beginning the industry has believed that this ordinance is both unnecessary and unconstitutional, and those underlying reasons for the industry's opposition remain entirely unchanged at this time," Portnoy said from his Washington, D.C., office.

"To be blunt, there's not a shred of evidence to suggest that the playing of violent video games has had any negative or violent effect on anyone in Indianapolis or Marion County."

Peterson agrees that violent arcade games are not solely to blame for recent acts of youth violence, but he says they definitely play a part. He says the city has the power to enforce the new ordinance because it regulates arcades and other businesses that often have coin-operated games, such as restaurants, bowling alleys and movie theaters.

"Without a city permit you cannot display, and make available for use, a video game," Peterson said. "So that gives us the authority to say that if you're going to display them, you've got to display them a certain way."

Indiana Civil Liberties Union attorney Ken Falk said the ordinance — which he believes is the first of its kind — may impinge on First Amendment rights.

"I certainly think it has some potential problems," he said. "I think it is an expressive activity which is being, potentially, unduly restricted."

Constitutionality aside, one Purdue University professor believes the ordinance faces an even greater problem.

"It's not going to do any good, let's put it that way," said John Sherry, an assistant professor of communication who's researching the effects violent video games have on children.

Sherry believes there is little, if any, correlation between violent games and aggression in young people.

"Do we have any reason from the literature to suspect that these kids who are playing violent video games will become antisocially destructive?" he asked. "From the social science side, we don't. From a social science point of view there's no compelling reason (for Peterson) to do what he's doing."

Some of those who will be most affected by the new ordinance agree.

"I think it's an OK idea, but I like playing some of the violent games, so I guess it kind of hurts me," said Stephen Prunier, 13.

He was with his 16-year-old sister, Jenni Prunier, at an Indianapolis arcade, playing a relatively old-fashioned — and nonviolent — basketball game. Both agreed that violent video games don't promote violent acts, and they said the ordinance would simply become another rule kids would find a way around.

"If we don't play them in an arcade, we're going to get the Nintendo 64 game and play them at home," Jenni Prunier said. "It won't make a difference."

Update

Industry groups challenge Indianapolis violent video game law
'We are on the edge of a slippery slope, and our industry has been forced to litigate to protect core constitutional rights,' says association president.  08.22.00

Related

State senator hopes to regulate violent video games through obscenity law
But constitutional law expert says Tennessee lawmaker's latest approach is flawed.  04.18.00

Illinois attorney general urges end to sales of violent video games to minors
Jim Ryan tells retailers he will find 'alternative enforcement strategies' if they don't voluntarily comply.  04.20.00

FTC probes entertainment industry's sale of violence to kids
'We're examining the self-regulation put in place by the entertainment industry to see if it works and how it works,' says agency official.  04.27.00

Discount retailers resist efforts to limit sales of violent video games
Representatives from chains meet with Illinois attorney general on same day nine U.S. senators send letter urging stores to pull such games off shelves.  05.25.00