Skip to main content

Missouri proposes tax on violent video games like Dance Central 3

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The United States Supreme Court ruled that video games are protected speech, no different than books, paintings, or films, when it ruled on Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association in 2011. That case struck down the 2005 California state law that banned the sale of violent video games to people under the age of 18, and required additional warnings on the package beyond the ESRB ratings system. The Court found the law unconstitutional, just as many district courts had found similar laws previously. That doesn’t stop people from trying, though. Missouri is now attempting to curb the sale of violent games by imposing a tax on them.

More specifically, State Representative Diane Franklin (R) has introduced House Bill No. 157, calling for a 1-percent sales tax placed on all violent video games sold in the Show-Me state. The bill employs a liberal definition of just what constitutes a “violent” video game:

“[The] term ‘violent video game’ means a video or computer game that has received a rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board of Teen, Mature, or Adult Only.”

The majority of games sporting the ESRB’s M for Mature rating do feature explicit violence and in many cases sex, as do the mere twenty-two games to receive the Adults Only rating over the past nineteen years. That games rated T for Teen is included under the bill’s definition betrays the author’s profound ignorance of the media in question.

Consider some of the games rated Teen currently on Amazon.com’s best-seller list. Titles include: You Don’t Know JackForza Horizon, and Dance Central 3, whose most violent content is bright colors. The most violent T-rated games on the list are Star Wars Kinect and StarCraft II, games whose fantasy violence is roughly comparable to the first fifteen seconds of a thirty-second commercial for NCIS on CBS. Television shows are naturally not included in the proposal, though, nor are movies or books.

Rep. Franklin’s bill is unlikely to be signed into state law, and if it is, it will be struck down as swiftly as similar legislation proposed in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and California.

Anthony John Agnello
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…
How to buy and customize ships in Sea of Thieves
The name King of Red Lions floats above a red, customized ship in Sea of Thieves.

The newest season of Sea of Thieves is here to take you back to your favorite swashbuckling adventure world. And whether that means you're checking out the series for the first time or you're having trouble remembering everything from the last time you played, you're probably aware that you'll need a ship to find a transport your booty around. Here's how to get a ship in Sea of Thieves as well as customize it to your liking.

Read more
Quick! This PS5 bundle just got an unprecedented price cut
The Playstation 5 system standing upright.

We didn't expect the PlayStation 5 Slim, the updated version of Sony's video game console, to go on sale this soon, but you can already get the PlayStation 5 Slim Marvel's Spider-Man 2 bundle from Amazon with a 20% discount. From its original price of $559, you'll only have to pay $449, which is a fantastic price for this gaming machine. PS5 deals always attract a lot of attention, so we expect this offer to get sold out quickly. If you want to take advantage of it, you're going to have to hurry in completing your purchase.

Why you should buy the PlayStation 5 Slim Marvel's Spider-Man 2 bundle
The PlayStation 5 Slim is more than just a slimmed-down version of the original PlayStation 5 -- though the difference is noticeable with 18% less weight and 30% less volume for the disc version. There's no performance upgrade between the PS5 Slim and PS5, and you'll be able to play all of the PlayStation 5 games on either model, but the PS5 Slim comes with a 1TB of storage with around 842GB usable, compared to 825GB with 667GB usable in the original PS5. That's nearly 200GB of extra space for your installed games, save data, and screenshots.

Read more
How to change your Steam username
Steam library.

Unless you've got an absolute premium username or have too many linked accounts to name, there's no reason to stick with the same username forever. Unlike some services that offer limited username changes or charge to change your tag, Steam allows users to adjust their usernames at any time.

You don't have to keep that awful username you picked on some random Tuesday before hopping into a game. Here's how you can make a change.

Read more