According to an article running in the South Bend Tribune, the Indiana state Senate has approved legislation that would “impose fines up to $1,000 if retailers sold or rented video games rated mature to those under 17 or games rated adults only to those under age 18.” The bill moves to the full Senate after winning approval from the Senate Technology Committee on a 5-2 vote.
During a public meeting on the bill in the Senate chambers, lawmakers “watched clips of violent beatings, topless strippers and other adult material.” One member was not pleased with the video. “I am absolutely totally appalled – first by the content and second that you would bring that kind of filth into this Senate chamber,” Senator Brent Waltz, R-Greenwood, said.
Committee chairman Senator David Ford, R-Hartford City took responsibility for the video, saying that, “My thought was you needed to know what you were voting on.” The president of the Center for Successful Parenting, Steve Stoughton, brought in the video to show what a game rated M looked like. “They have no idea, really, what their children are watching,” he said. “It’s an issue that isn’t going to go away.”
