Democrat West Virginia senator introduces bills to study effect of violent games on children
Democrat West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller has introduced a bill in Congress, tasking the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to carry out a comprehensive study and investigation on the effect of violent video games and other programming on children and
their well-being.
The action has been taken in the wake of the tragic shooting incident at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday, December 14.
The shooting resulted in the death of 20 children and six adults, including the shooter, who was a 20-year-old armed man, and his mom.
Reports have suggested that the man was an addict of Activision’s first-person shooter Call of Duty franchise, thus raising concerns about the potential impact of such games on the mind of a person, especially children.
Rockefeller said in a statement on his website that the big companies were ignoring their responsibility of protecting children from violent content and are instead greedily making big money by selling inappropriate content to children without caring about
the consequences.
He said that the Congress is there to protect the citizens and will play an aggressive role to ensure that the social and moral responsibilities are not ignored by anyone.
"Major corporations, including the video game industry, make billions on marketing and selling violent content to children," Rockefeller said in a statement to his website. "They have a responsibility to protect our children. If they do not, you can count
on the Congress to take a more aggressive role."
The bill introduced by Rockefeller in the Congress will task NAS to thoroughly study and investigate the link between violent games and such content on the minds and well-being of the children, while it will also investigate the direct and long-lasting impact
of such content on a child’s well-being.
The Democrat West Virginia democrat also plans to call on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to shoulder the responsibility of keeping children from accessing inappropriate content, since the parents can no
longer effectively protect their children from exposure to inappropriate content due to the changes in technology.
If the bill presented in the Congress gets passed, NAS will have to complete its study and submit the report to the FCC, FTC and the Congress in 18 months.
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