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The question isn't who should or shouldn't be protected, but who should be doing the protecting. Should the retail outlets be forced to ensure that your kids don't see violent material, or should the parents be forced to actually participate in their children's lives and make informed decisions on what they want them viewing? As a human services worker who works with adjudicated youth, I can promise you, in my experience, it is not the violent content of any media that caused the kids I see to violate the law. It is the distinct lack of interaction between the parent(s) and their children. The parents not only fail to monitor what it is their kids see, hear, and experience, but also fail to help them interperet and learn from these same experiences. The kids are forced to establish their own morals from misconstrued information and childish needs/tendencies.
The ESRB ratings are clearly printed on every case, easily distinguishing violent and offensive media from those geared toward a younger audience, if the parents truly cared enough to check. This legislation will only help parents feel better about ignoring their children's lives and interests, and in the end, benefits no one except those politicians trying not to look so impotent and apathetic to their constituants before re-election.
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