Games and Porn

That should get your attention.

Gamecloud has an excellent article about game age gates and how the ESRB has mandated that they be used for promoting M rated games. Activision has reportedly gone so far as to require credit card checks. This is clearly in reaction to the current trend of laws making the sale of such games illegal to minors and is actually on of the things I suggested might happen back when the Demuzio law was still being discussed.

The disturbing thing here is that it places video games closer to the domain of pornography. As the article rightly points out, there is no such restriction for browsing the websites of the much more similar R rated movies. Even, if I recall correctly, to play web games based on those movies. How about that for a double standard? So I can play a game where all I do is blow zombies away in a Flash player, but if I dare check out the next Resident Evil game ... I better bring my Visa? Clearly, this isn't making any sense.