Oklahoma Ponders Violent Videogame Tax

[Andy Chalk]

Oklahoma Ponders Violent Videogame Tax

An Oklahoma State Representative wants to impose a tax on violent videogames to help fight childhood obesity and bullying.

Oklahoma State Representative William Fourkiller is a man with a plan. Beginning with the presumption that violent videogames make kids fat, lazy and mean, he's proposed a tax of one percent, above and beyond any existing sales taxes, on such games to fight the problems of childhood obesity and schoolyard bullying. Half of the taxes collected will go to a "Childhood Outdoor Education Revolving Fund" and half will go to a "Bullying Prevention Revolving Fund," both of which would be created under the terms of the new law.

As for what constitutes a "violent" videogame, the bill proposes that the term be applied to any game that has been rated by the ESRB as Teen, Mature or Adult Only. The final section of the bill also rather bizarrely declares the situation an emergency, "it being immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety," and thus states that the law "shall take effect and be in full force from and after its passage and approval."

The bill - failed [http://www.oklegislature.gov/BillInfo.aspx?Bill=HB2696&Tab=0] to make it through the state legislature.

via: News On 6 [http://www.newson6.com/story/16647624/okla-lawmaker-proposes-tax-on-violent-video-games]

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[Absolutionis]

Politics seems so easy.

I propose an amendment called the "HB 2697: Freedom Proclamation of American Values". It'll ban terrorism in the US in order to create jobs and cure cancerAIDS. Anyone who opposes this amendment is an anti-jobs cancerAIDS-sympathizer.

Just drop a bunch of buzzwords and people will think it's a good thing.

 

[draythefingerless]

Politics seems so easy.

I propose an amendment called the "HB 2697: Freedom Proclamation of American Values". It'll ban terrorism in the US in order to create jobs and cure cancerAIDS. Anyone who opposes this amendment is an anti-jobs cancerAIDS-sympathizer.

Just drop a bunch of buzzwords and people will think it's a good thing.

it has to do with the way the united states is formed. unfortunately, being so independent from one another, individual states can get by with these IDIOTIC and ignorant ideas. on a more federal national level, such things dont go by so easily, as is the case with recent of events of SOPA and such. that is not to say that this proposed bill will pass, just that these ideas can get passed just by one hearing is astoundingly easy.

 

[Tanis]

TAXES ARE EVIL AND ONLY DONE BY THE OTHER PARTY...

Unless, you know, we can spin them in such a way as to tug on your emotional heart strings and lie about something.

 

[Sabrestar]

Wait, he's going after "violent" videogames? And his last name is Fourkiller?

Isn't that dangerous? That sounds like he could be encouraging serial murderers.

 

[Baresark]

I hate this. They act like it's aimed at such a noble thing, but it's just an excuse to make a new tax. It's downright offensive, to be honest. They want to make it seem like you should be happy that something like violent video games will make a real difference in the world. Only, it just punishes people who play those kinds of games, and it will adversely effect the industry in Oklahoma. Just like the yacht tax of 1992 destroyed the domestic yacht industry, this will hurt videogames and gamers. It'll be like smoking is now. Jerry Doyle used the phrase, "love the sin, hate the sinner", in reference to smoking taxes.

 

[Ignatz_Zwakh]

So THAT'S where fat bullies come from! Gee Mr. Fourkiller, thanks for keeping us informed! Now I'll know to not play COD, lest I gain a few pounds and a mean disposition!

 

[Bob_F_It]

Somehow, I don't see:
A: developers limboing under the teen rating for the sake of avoiding a 1% tax.
B: this tax having any effect on bullying, poor health, or violence, since those have been problems since before games, with at least one of those improving after gaming's arrival.

Clearly Fourkiller is trying to be popular with middle-conservative-America, the easiest way being to act upon Fox "News"'s ramblings.

 

[Robert Ewing]

*Facepalm*

I suppose they should tax violent books, porn, violent movies, violent shows, violent people, violent language, violence in the animal kingdom, violence in the middle easy (lol.)

Seriously, this is stupid.

 

[Baresark]

Politics seems so easy.

I propose an amendment called the "HB 2697: Freedom Proclamation of American Values". It'll ban terrorism in the US in order to create jobs and cure cancerAIDS. Anyone who opposes this amendment is an anti-jobs cancerAIDS-sympathizer.

Just drop a bunch of buzzwords and people will think it's a good thing.

it has to do with the way the united states is formed. unfortunately, being so independent from one another, individual states can get by with these IDIOTIC and ignorant ideas. on a more federal national level, such things dont go by so easily, as is the case with recent of events of SOPA and such. that is not to say that this proposed bill will pass, just that these ideas can get passed just by one hearing is astoundingly easy.

What you are saying is nonsense, no offense meant by that. You are misunderstanding the whole situation. You are splitting hairs and acting like one form of government (Federal Government) is better than another form of the same government (State Government). Both make good and bad decisions. This is just a proposal by one single politician that will gain favor because it involves new avenues of tax revenue. But, the Federal Government makes just as many stupid bad decisions as State Governments do. To name a few in history we have Korea, Vietnam, Iraq War 1, Iraq War 2, Afghanistan... I could go on. These are things that States would never do individually. Look at the War on Drugs, the only reason it's under any kind of control is because individual states make laws going against the Federal mandates. I'm not trying to start a flame war or anything, but your response to that statement was just not in alignment with reality. I'm just trying to point out that the ideas that are idiotic and don't fly on federal level is an illusion. You better believe that this could easily become a federal law if it was successful on a state level. Things like this are going to become more and more commonplace unfortunately, consider the amount of money various levels of government already make off of the videogame industry.

Luckily, with the decision by the Supreme court that videogames are protected under the first amendment would put an end to that, at least for the moment. At any time someone could come along and convince the Supreme Court their ruling was a bad one. Just as precedents can be set, they can be reversed.

 

[Baresark]

*Facepalm*

I suppose they should tax violent books, porn, violent movies, violent shows, violent people, violent language, violence in the animal kingdom, violence in the middle easy (lol.)

Seriously, this is stupid.

These things are already taxed, this is just them trying to tax it even more. Haha, and I think you meant the middle east.

 

[xedobubble]

Wow, just wow. I like how he's explicitly leveling the tax at teen/mature/adult titles that shouldn't be played by small children in the first place.

And I find it interesting that he's basing the bill on the ESRB rating of the games, which is a non-government body the gaming industry set up to rate games independently. And its technically voluntary. Doesn't that undermine the law to have it issue taxes based on a non-government rating assignment?

 

[Braedan]

God, where do these people keep coming from? You would think they would at least research what has happened to the previous bills so as not to waste money...

 

[ciancon]

Now THERE'S a face that you just wanna punch...

 

[Dandark]

God, where do these people keep coming from? You would think they would at least research what has happened to the previous bills so as not to waste money...

This ^^
Where the heck do they keep coming from. It's like all these idiotic and stupid politicans were put into cryo sleep somewhere and are now waking up one at a time only to blindly stumble out into a new world mumbling about how videogames invented the idea of violence and that they all need to be banned.
He could at least try and have the slightest clue what he is talking about.

 

[Therumancer]

Hmmm, well you have to understand that these are big problems that don't have an easy solution. Bullying has been an issue (a part of school life and youth culture) since before video games even existed. Child obesity is part of the general weight problem in the first world that comes from our technology and all of these conveinences.

Interestingly when it comes to the problems with children in paticular one of the big issues is that kids really CAN'T go outside to play. People like to blame things like TV and Video Games as being something kids choose to do instead, but rather these pastimes became big as a way of keeping kids entertained in the safety of their own homes, or at least it's what allowed them to grow to the point they are now, there is some truth to divided interest since fun is fun.

See, the problems are manyfold. One of them is simply that with a two income household being a nessecity there are no parents availible to constantly supervise children outdoors. NOT supervising children can lead to claims of negligence. In part that's fueled by concerns over liability, since if some kid goes running around the neighborhood and gets hurt the town or whomever's property they happened to be on can be held liable, which of course lead to defenses of "where were the parents?" being made and a whole stew of laws in both directions.

This is to say nothing of the problems caused by rampant liberalism. See, to a lot of left wingers the idea of that 50s-esque suburbian utopia where kids scamper safely around neighborhoods is an anathema. We've seen a lot of effort made to protect all the freaks and weirdos that prey on kids, by not allowing things like profiling and requiring massive levels of proof before someone can be chased off or harassed. I understand all the civil liberties arguements for this, but understand that as "fair" as that might be from some perspectives it has lead to the world becoming far more dangerous, as the sickos are able to hide behind that kind of thing as much as the people who are just eccentric but harmless. Indeed I think protection has caused aberrant behavior to flourish because there is very little in the way to punish or discourage it.

Now, some people might be freaking out about how wrong I am about the above statement, but let me put it into perspective. Today if some wierdo wants to head down to the playground and spank off under his overcoat, and perhaps even flash kids, there is little you can do unless you can actually PROVE what's he's doing, probably beyond what the first few kids report. Sure, eventually you'll probably get the guy, but by the time you do, how much damage has he done? This also applies to gangs being able to openly walk around in "uniform" and similar things.

The point is that kids are scared, and so are a lot of parents, since the odds of some kid walking around the neighborhood getting snatched, or having something bad happen to them are pretty high. Tired parents mean that they typically want to keep the kids at home with them, and that means things like TV and video games. Violent video games being no worse on most levels than kids running around with squirt guns or playing Cowboys and Indians or Army or whatever else.

This is the price you pay for some of the victories of yesterday, and letting the crotchedy old man screaming about kids on his lawn get a lawyer and make parents actually worry about their kids tresspassing in taking a shortcut.

The bottom line here is that Mr. Fourkiller might want to investigate some of the actual laws in force, especially local laws, and even if reasonable, repeal some of them. Approach things from the perspective of "what weould we need to do, to create an enviroment where kids can walk the street".

Well, assuming of course you think keeping kids inside and the obesity problem is that big a deal. My opinions are kind of mixed overall. The point is that you have to weigh things like the rights of property owners to protect themselves against lawsuits, and various kinds of profiling, against allowing children enough indendance and safety to again scamper through the neighborhoods.Your ultimatly not going to make both sides happy, and have to prioritize.

Overall liberals tend to make arguements that going after some masterbating playground pervert proactively isn't worth the risk in case it just happens to be some bored guy who likes to sit on that bench around all those kids for... whatever reason. I tend to take the position that in most cases an adult doing that is bloody wierd, and he can find plenty of other places to sit, favoring the freedom to let your kids roam freely and safely, over the freedom to be disturbingly wierd in any and all enviroments.

 

[coil]

Dunno about the rest of you, but (T-rated) Dance Central made me fat and mean.

 

[ph0b0s123]

Oklahoma Ponders Violent Videogame Tax

Beginning with the presumption that violent videogames make kids fat, lazy and mean, he's proposed a tax of one percent, above and beyond any existing sales taxes, on such games to fight the problems of childhood obesity and schoolyard bullying.

As for what constitutes a "violent" videogame, the bill proposes that the term be applied to any game that has been rated by the ESRB as Teen, Mature or Adult Only.

'Kids' should not be playing games rated 'Mature or Adult Only' in the first place, let alone getting fat and lazy from them. Logic fail....