Democrat state senator Julia Boseman has announced plans to reintroduce a bill in the North Carolina senate that would criminalize the sale of violent and sexually explicit games to minors.
The news was reported in
local website StarNewsOnline, and highlighted by GamePolitics.com, with Boseman apparently aware of the large number of similar bills which have failed across the United States due to free speech concerns. “We think we can reduce the conflict with constitutional issues,” she is quoted as saying.
The bill was previously passed by the North Carolina senate but was not taken up in the House. Similar bills have also been sponsored in states including
Minnesota,
Louisiana,
Tennessee,
California and
Illinois. Although some bills have gone as far as being signed into law, all have been eventually blocked due to the same First Amendment conflicts.
North Carolina has previously appeared sympathetic towards the video games industry, with Democrat Pryor Gibson
proposing a bill in May of last year that would grant local game developers a potential tax credit of 15 percent.
