Romney on the evils of game retailers
We must be getting closer to elections if presidential hopefuls are beating the drum about game retailers and stricter laws again. This time it's Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney who's struggling to take the family-friendly line. While his rhetoric on games is empty and uninformed, it will probably strike a chord with parents, as it makes for a tasty soundbite: "It's time to clean up the water in which our kids are swimming," he said. "I've proposed that we enforce our obscenity laws again and that we get serious against those retailers that sell adult video games that are filled with violence, that we go after those retailers," he said.
It's unfortunate that the truth doesn't get more votes, because we'd love to see another candidate (any one will do) fire back with some of the statistics on exactly who's buying all these video games. Here's a hint: it's usually not the kids who are wielding the credit cards during game purchases. There are protections in place for children -- parental controls on consoles, rating systems, current laws -- and considering that only 17% of game purchases are performed by children, it seems that more laws, stricter punishments, and whatever else Romney could come up with would be a waste of resources. Until we can convince parents to take a more active role in monitoring the activities of their children, the current system is just fine.
That doesn't make much of a clip for the news networks, however.
[Via Game|Life]
