Clinton+Lieberman+ESRB=?
Maybe we're on the edge of a new dawn here. In a joint press conference this afternoon, Senators Clinton and Lieberman joined with ESRB president Patricia Vance (the cutie on the right) to...praise the ESRB. The cynic in me wants to write this off as political posturing, but I think it's also about time that some politicians actually had some nice things to say about the ESRB.
It's not the system that's flawed; it's the lack of ratings education and enforcement. I'm tired of hearing that the ESRB is broken.
On the other hand, recent school violence (perpetrated by kids who, among other things, played Counter Strike) in Germany has sparked what I am forced to call a knee-jerk reaction from Bavaria and Lower Saxony. From the Deutsche Welle article:
"Bavaria's Interior Minister, the Christian Social Union member Günther Beckstein, said he wants make the creation, sale and use of computer games that glorify violence punishable by law.
...
According to Beckstein's suggestions, the sale, purchase and use of games that fail to respect human life would be punishable by up to a year of prison."
That's a bit ridiculous, methinks.