http://biz.gamedaily.com/features.asp?article_id=11221
This actually seems like a pretty sensible and non-overreaching law to me. It'll probably still be squashed by the judiciary, but that's OK too.
FEPA summary
Here is the full five-part description of Clinton's FEPA:
I. Prohibition on Selling Mature and Adults Only video games to minors
<LI>The centerpiece of this bill is a prohibition against any business for selling or renting a Mature, Adults-Only, or Ratings Pending game to a person who is younger than seventeen. This provision is not aimed at punishing retailers who act in good faith to enforce the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) system. That's why retailers would have an affirmative defense if they were shown an identification they believed to be valid or have a system in place to display and enforce the ESRB system. Similar prohibitions have become law in the last several months in California, Michigan, and Illinois.
II. Annual Analysis of the Ratings System
<LI>Since the bill relies on the video game industry to continue rating the appropriateness of games for minors, this bill requires an annual, independent analysis of game ratings. This analysis will help ensure that the ESRB ratings system accurately reflects the content in each game and that the ratings system does not change significantly over time.
III. Authority for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to Investigate Misleading Ratings
<LI>Part of the genesis of this bill was the revelation that the makers of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas had included, through embedded code that was discovered and made accessible to the public, sexually explicit content inconsistent with the game's Mature rating. This bill requires the FTC to conduct an investigation to determine whether what happened with GTA: San Andreas is a pervasive problem. It also includes a Sense of Congress that the Commission shall take appropriate action if it determines that there is a pervasive problem.
IV. Authority to Register Complaints
<LI>This bill requires the Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) of the FTC to ensure that consumers can file complaints if they find content to be misleading or deceptive and requires the BCP to report on the number of such complaints to Congress.
V. Annual Retailer Audit
This bill authorizes the FTC to conduct an annual, random audit of retailers - sometimes referred to as a secret shopper survey - to determine how easy it is for young people to purchase Mature and Adults Only video games and report the findings to Congress.
This actually seems like a pretty sensible and non-overreaching law to me. It'll probably still be squashed by the judiciary, but that's OK too.
). If you wouldn't take your kid to see an R rated movie, don't buy him an M-rated game - its that simple. Rockstar (the makers of GTA) didn't do anything wrong, at all - that they didn't delete the code rather than simply commenting it out was pretty silly of them, sure, but they're not responsible for modification of the game code. It'd be the same as if I deleted parts of the code to some Barbie dress-up type game that made the characters look nude. To sum up:
