Pittsburgh LAN Coalition

Big Win For Future Anti-Video Game Battles

Dear Pittco,

When asked to combat an anti-video game threat, VGVN members like you continually come to the defense of video games by voicing your concerns to state officials where anti-video game laws are being considered. Before many of you spoke up to defend video games, many of these state officials never even heard a counter-argument to the stances of many vocal video game critics.

Recently, the Pennsylvania Task Force on Violent Interactive Video Games released a landmark report to the state legislature which makes the case for NOT enacting video game regulations. The report is a comprehensive study with input from a diverse group of participants including experts on First Amendment issues, social science, clinical psychology and members of the game and entertainment industry and law enforcement.

The lengthy report is available here (PDF). The report praises the industry’s efforts to address concerns about game content and raising awareness about the rating system. Most importantly, the report outlines three recommendations for Pennsylvania:

• The Pennsylvania General Assembly must avoid enacting restrictive legislation similar to those that have been invalidated by federal courts.
• The General Assembly should consider devoting resources to the establishment of a publicly funded consumer education program on video and computer games.
• The task force calls upon the academic community of this Commonwealth to pursue more scientifically based and objective research on the positive and negative effects of video games and other modern media on children and young adults.

This is a positive signal that our voices are being heard, and hopefully other states will look to Pennsylvania before deciding to take on video games again! If they don’t, we will be there to defend video games, and we hope we can count on your support!

Thanks,

The Video Game Voter Network