The Assembly Arts and Entertainment Committee will today review AB 450 -- a bill by Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, that would restrict minors' access to certain "ultra'' violent video games.

The bill would "prohibit the sale, rent, distribution, and exhibition of violent video games, as defined, to persons who are 16 years of age or younger. The bill would provide that a person who violates the act may be liable in an amount of up to $1,000 for each violation."

Among the definitions of "violent" (italics mine):

• A reasonable person, considering the game as a whole, would find appeals to a deviant or morbid interest of minors.
  
• It is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the community as to what is suitable for minors. (okay in Compton, not Beverly Hills?)
  
• Taken as a whole, the game lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors. (like the legislative session hearing this )
  
• Violent video game" means a video game in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being. (How about dealing with REAL killing, maiming etc.)
  
• Enables the player to virtually inflict serious injury upon images of human beings or characters with substantially human characteristics in a manner which is especially heinous, cruel, or depraved in that it involves torture or serious physical abuse to the victim. (There goes the GI Joe Goes To Abu Ghraib doll set)
  

As John Hrabe points out in an editorial in the San Jose Mercury news, "Yee's bill represents the scariest approach to unwanted expression. AB 450 not only violates the First Amendment, but also dangerously conflates violence with obscenity."

One would think Mr. Yee has far more pressing issues to contend with than banning "ultra violence," although one wonders why he feels kids can have free access to the Bible if Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ is anything to go by.

Feel free to give Leland Yee a call, and let him know how you feel about people who behave violently toward the First Amendment.

Capitol Office
Phone: (916) 319-2012
Fax: (916) 319-2112

District Office
Phone: (415) 557-2312
Fax: (415) 557-1178

Email: Assemblymember.Yee@assembly.ca.gov