Belmont Shore Parents Approve Video Game Decision

Editor's Note: Today mark's Erick's first day with Patch. He is among six current or graduated Literary Journalism majors from University of California, Irvine that are working for Belmont Shore-Naples Patch this summer. When his bio is posted we will link it here.

The Belmont Shore community reacted with general support on Monday for a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the video game industry, striking down a law which would have restricted sales and rentals of violent video games to minors.

“It is up to the parents,” says Chris Zuidema of Naples, a father of three including a son who played the video game Doom.  “It’s okay to put an age requirement. But government shouldn’t police us.  Let parents decide.”

In the case of Brown v. the Entertainment Merchants Association, the ruling officially struck down California Law Assembly Bill 1179, which banned the sale of violent video games to minors, fined retailers fines up to $1,000 per infraction, and forced retailers to place an “18” sticker on all games deemed violent in accordance to a set of definitions the law established. 

In Belmont Shore parents say the ruling won’t really change things for them or their children.  A general consensus found that it was more the parent’s responsibility than the government’s to regulate content their children consume.  One father of four, all of who only play with a Nintendo Wii questioned, “Why is government getting involved if ratings are working?”

Other parents felt that it would be good to have the law in place.  “Boys are already crazy,” said Bruce Baffert, a father of three daughters, whose wife runs a childcare center in Belmont Shore.  He admits that playing violent video games is “adding violence to the mix, it’s like throwing gas on a fire.”

But Baffert says that at a micro level “parents should govern their own children,” while at a macro level he is fine with leaders or government putting boundaries on violent video games.

State Senator Yee, who wrote the law, has a background in child psychology and pointed out that studies show a correlation between violent video games and youth aggression.

On the other hand the Court found psychological studies that “show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively.”

Baffert, who was sitting on a bench with his daughter on 2nd Street on Monday morning, commented that he hasn’t “seen anyone turn into an axe murderer” because of these games and whether or not they’re affected simply depends on “kids with a certain personality.”

Zuidema, enjoying a frozen yogurt on 2nd Street with his wife Marcia, said that despite the video games his son has played growing up, “he grew up to be normal.”  His wife agreed that it all comes down to good parenting.