Video games are often used as a scapegoat to blame violent actions of a certain individual. There are a number of studies stating that violent video games don’t make gamers violent. Now, Pennsylvania lawmakers have proposed a “Sin Tax” on violent video games in order to control violent behavior in young individuals.
According to the proposed law, “Sin Tax” will be applied to every game rated “M” by ESRB. The funds raised by this tax will be used to fund a new board that will see to school safety.
This isn’t the first time lawmakers have proposed to Tax violent video games. Back in 2013 lawmakers attempted to tax M rated video games.
Also, the terms M rated is a very broad term, not all video games rated M are violent. Basically, this law will require every video games rated M to pay Sin Tax whether it’s violent or not.
There are a lot of video games which are rated M for their narrative, language, or certain element they depict.
Having a mature narrative doesn’t mean the game is violent. In short, even if this bill passes they still have to properly define which game categorizes as a violent video game.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) was against the proposed bill in 2013. According to ESA, such a law is the violation of the constitution.
Numerous authorities — including scientists, medical professionals, government agencies, and the US Supreme Court — found that video games do not cause violence. We encourage Pennsylvania legislators to work with us to raise awareness about parental controls and the ESRB video game rating system, which are effective tools to ensure parents maintain control over the video games played in their home.
Let’s do a little math, the “Sin Tax” will be on video games that will be sold to 17-year-olds or older. This proposed law is to protect children way below that age.
Now, these underage gamers are dependent on their parents to buy them M rates video games.
Instead of spreading awareness among parents to not buy video games for their children they are not supposed to play, this law is basically taxing the ones who have an understanding of what they are buying.
In short video games will become a bit expensive for those caught in the middle of this blame game.
