Truthfully, I don't see a point to this type of regulation any more. The Industry Ratings aren't really much help for any type of product.
I've re-visited the concept of Violence Rating and have found that 99% of all children's cartoon shows, TV series, & movies contain violence of one sort or another. I even attempted to come up with a violence rating or meter, and it became pointless with so many facets and perspectives of violence that may seem as trivial violence, to slap stick violence, to obscure violence, to explicit violence, etc.
The Industry Rating system is only a guide and is merely intended to assist parents with thousands of materials that an average parent can't sit down and go through in a single day, week, month, or even a year. Nothing more. Each parent has to make their own decisions, as even the Rating System itself isn't completely accurate or correct with some circumstances.
The 1950's (Disney's) Bugs Bunny was extremely Anti-Japanese, with bugs running an ice cream vending cart, selling ice cream cones with a grenade on top, and stating, "Kill the Japs..." to all of his customers. This one show was actually directly banned by the U.S. Congress without any court involvement by the 70's, about 18 to 20 years later. A good example for where Rating Systems are best utilized, against hate crimes, etcetera, but then again, the Ratings System wasn't around during these times.
I'd have to agree that this is nothing more than a State's attempt to raise money with another method of fines. Virginia tried that with traffic violation tickets by automatically increasing all traffic violation fines by six fold for all Virginia citizens. The Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional since it only effected one state's citizens and not everyone from any state that happen to immigrate along the highways or enpasse.
The Federal Patriot Act was another disaster, though the Federal Law has expired. One state, Ohio, has passed their own State Patriot Act, and another four states are considering passing their own similar laws. The Ohio Patriot Act basicly makes Constitutional Rights null & void, especially the Miranda Right, and other rights. Explicitly if a person in custody, for whatever reason including merely a witness, refuses to answer a question in court, even if they have no answer or have no clue, all Constitutional Rights are automatically waived, nullified, or revoked, and the individual may additionally be imprisoned for 1 to 5 years, for not answering a question. This Ohio law is currently in effect and has been in effect since the year the Federal Patriot Act was set to expire.
As for fines, penaties, and jail times in dealing with adolescent crimes or similar, some states directly fine the vendor, some directly fine the child, and some directly fine the parents. Minnesota is a good example of where if a child has been found to have commited a crime, the parent(s) automatically go to jail for 1 year, regardless of the level of the crime, including minor misdemeanors caused by the child. The child's age is irrelevant for enforcement of the state law. I guess the theory is to teach the toddlers or teens what life is like without their parents and as a crime inhibitor or whatever.
This is pretty much similar to Germany's illegal home schooling laws, where if a child is not sent to a public school and taught at home by their parents, the child is taken away from the parents, placed into foster homes, and the parents goto jail for two years. Idaho has a law for throwing non-married couples whom engage in consentual sex into jail for 1 year.
The issues are much more complex than just passing a single law or ruling, or even opposing a single law or ruling. The United States has 51 Constitutions (one per state + one federal) & many different bodies of Legal Codes per state. It's not surprising that many of the 50 Nation-States' laws contradict and conflict with each other.
The purpose of Federal Law is to standardize some interpretations and uses of the various laws. Enforcement of any laws is another thing, where manpower may be low (big or small government dilemma, or merely citizen representatives of whatever position disagreeing with each other, state vs. state/state vs. fed disagreements, even county vs. county disagreements, and town(s) disagreements).
Anyways, I'm against ludicrous laws that won't do much other than take away our rights. The state laws under review for Prohibiting video game sales to minors will most likely not say anything or even effect Public or Private Libraries where purchase is not necessary and anyone can borrow for free, or even rent through other types of non-Sale Vendor outlets. The law would have no effect on friends, families, or neighbors sharing their games either.
I have to agree with the Supreme Court's 1st Ruling that the laws are unconstitutional and violates our basic rights (1st Amendment). I guess we'll just have to see where these possible court rulings & assessments go. It's not uncommon for government to regulate industry or even fail to regulate, such as in the case of banks & financial thieving systems.
Another aspect or example could be some of MTV's older pilot programs of kids doing stupid stuff in a Controlled Production Environment and kids at home attempting to copy what they've seen and end up hurting or killing themselves. I'm not sure if that's true with video games. The responsibility still lies with the parents for any of these circumstances to voluntarily regulate their kids.
On the other hand, the games do improve hand-eye coordination, multi-abstract thinking, and even high speed critical thinking, among other things. Kids who play these fast paced games actually do 68% better in school than kids who don't play them.
Kids who play Flight Simulators and eventually enlist pass their U.S. Airforce test 93% of the time on their first try, where as those whom have never played with Flight Simulators pass about 40% of the time on their second try, and 60% of the time by their 3rd try.
The aspects, perspectives, and arguments can go in any direction. PG or Parental Guidence isn't just a rating and doesn't necessarily mean it's safe to leave your kids alone with the materials. Garfield even has an NR rating (Not Rated), so many materials could fall under NR as a loop hole, if a rating is required no matter what.
