Proven Grounds of Choice

So here is the day to prove yourself. You are about to take on a gang of vicious criminals that is standing between you and the main bad guy. You have only enough ammo in your M-16 to make it through the first wave of guys. So, what is the plan? Well ... for this young boy, knowing he is intuitive, has straight A's and does well in figuring out situations, he decides he will kill the first few guys, grab some ammo off the dead bodies and move on. So ...

The young boy picks up the controller, hits a few buttons and makes his way to the boss, to get the the prize reward. He has achieved his goal, all the while his mother is watching him play. "Time for homework," says his mother. He looks back and says "OK," saves the Grand Theft Auto game and goes to do his homework. In this proven ground, the mother and child is victorious.

So this is a scene you would see in a more mature setting of the proven ground between a parent and child. A child, no greater then 12/13 years old able to play a blood-lust filled shooting game, and at the same time, listen and understand that there is a time to play games and do work. He also knows the difference between fantasy and reality, and what a he plays or sees on TV doesn't translate well in his life. Not all kids around his age understands these differences between reality and fantasy. But, its a choice of the parents, the proven ground of parenting. Do you know when, what and where to take these challenges and know the how to win? Well its up to you.

I bring up this situation because of one the latest Supreme Court Cases to come up in the past week. A challenge of a Law in California that bans the sell of mature video games to minors has been brought to the court saying it goes against the first amendment of the constitution.

So when you read, and you think about it, how is it can a law like this be wrong? When you first look at this on the surface, the law does provide a good sense of moral fiber and a barrier to keep the sell of violent video games to minors (but not out of their hands) but when you really look through the layers and think about it, selling anything to anyone is the choice of the buyer and seller. There is that choice of the buyer to make the decision to sell to a minor, and the minor's choice as well as the parents ever seeing eye to choose whether that a game full of prostitutes, shooting and maybe exotic sexual pleasures is worth their time, or the fact that they ... will understand what is in the game and what is real life.

There are a couple things that bothers me about the law that I'd like to bring up

1. Singling Out a Certain Industry ... The law is only focused on video games. Not banning minors from viewing Rated R or NC-17 movies or banning the sell of explicit CD/music to minors, but just banning video games. It seems that, even though it is self governed with its own rating system to help judge what is good for kids, teens or adults, like all the other media outlets that self-govern with rating systems (Movies, Music) it is being targeted. Why bring a law up when it already has a set of rules determining what is a 'Mature' or 'For Everyone' video game, not to forget that businesses are already fined for selling to minors. Maybe it is the fact that some people are offended by all the violence and sexual exposition that happens in a video games. When you look at it, singling out video games for violence seems hypocritical when you see violence in movies as well as hear explicit content in some songs without a law banning them from viewing or sales to minors/underage shoppers. Just a thought to remember, it is very prejudice law.

2. It Isn't the Government's Job to Parent Society ... No matter if it is moral or right, the government is the mom or dad of every child in America. Do you really need a law to provide a common sense fact of a parent to just say "No you can't play Grand Theft Auto." When it comes to the providing laws for parenting, we are just giving up the right to think at all. Maybe you should have never been a parent in the first place, since you aren't smart enough to judge what is right or wrong for your child.

So when it boils down to it, when you are brought to society's proven grounds, do you really need a law to parent your own child. Do you also need a law to single out one industry because of a misunderstanding or general prejudice. Maybe it is the world we live in, but everything boils down to the sense of a parent as well as the person involved, no matter what age. This is just one fact known to our social proven ground. No matter what you do, eat, listen to or play, can you have the sense to live morally right? I think so. Now I'm off to to play my Elf lore master and kill me a orc in LOTRO

- ... out