5 years

Over the last several years, state and local governments have been firing shots across the bow of the Interactive Video Game Industry, seeking to constrain increasingly graphic and violent content found in current interactive games. The federal government has now jumped into the fray, with proposed legislation seeking to punish the marketing of violent media to children. With the cyber-world of Internet role-playing games about to explode, increasing pressure will be brought to bear by morality groups chanting battle cries of "protect the children" as their perennial justification for censorship of controversial, violent or erotic expression.
Attorney General John Ashcroft, in a recent speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, blamed graphic video games for violent behavior in children, and even claimed that he "might be willing to trade First Amendment rights to improve the culture."(1) Violent outbreaks at schools have been linked to video games which allegedly train children to accurately shoot firearms, according to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman's book, Stop Training our Kids to Kill. Although numerous experts have since refuted this myth, graphic video games continue to be a popular scapegoat in the cultural war against modern media. With a recent Indiana federal court victory by the American Amusement Machine Association, the stage is set for a Battle Royale' between the government and the gamers in the Digital Age.
Historical Game Censorship Efforts
During the last decade, as advances in technology allowed for more graphic depiction of violence and eroticism, parents, lawmakers and community leaders began to take notice of the games children play. No longer did the kids whittle away hours chasing cartoon ghosts with happy faces - ala Packman - now they were hunting down zombies with automatic weapons. In response, murmurings of possible content restrictions and outright government censorship began to spread through the Video Game Industry. Morality