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California's governor, Ahnold (R), was also talking about this same crap a month ago for his state. I don't know what happened to it. Tom Ridge (R) while he was governor of PA was also talking about this for a while, but then was hired to do Homeland Security. Bush, while he was governor of Texas, also looked into these measures at times, but backed off when he realized that it would hurt his investments.
As usual, when a politician wants to seem to care about "family values" and violence, they go for the easier target: blame the media. Make parents feel better about themselves for working extra long hours rather than spending time with their kids and watching what they are up to. Take the easy way out of having to talk about banning guns or getting stricter police, thus not alienated people in either political side. Ignore how badly set up the education system is and how slow society is to detect children with major red flags that can easily predict whether or not he'll be a violent crack dealer or suicidal within a few years.
If you don't believe me, I'll tell you this: I work with adolescents in a mental health facility. Most are not severely crazy, rather, a product of obvious environmental factors that lead to juvenile delinquency and/or periods of aggressive behavior. Their stories are almost identical, and their stresors all things that could have been identified at a couple of key ages: 3-5, 8, and 12-13. "Dad walked out or was never there, was probably abusive. Mom got pregnant at the wrong time, had to work several jobs to raise the family or was busy spending time with another abusive guy or doing crack, and thus didn't superivise the kids. Kid got abused somewhere in his childhood while in this environment. Was 'strange' in his infancy, didn't seem to be attached to anyone, had problems walking, strange bruises, didn't get toilet-trained. At age 8 had to be hospitalized for a few days after a 'nervous breakdown' (read: suicide attempt or really bizarre behavior at school). Counseling helped him for a little while. At age 12, 13, or 14, he "mysteriously changed", started hanging out with juvenile delinquents/pot-smokers/gangsta wannabes. He started getting arrested and became more defiant at home. Eventually he starts hitting family members and plotting what people he is going to kill at school. Some people say that he seems depressed at times but doesn't talk to anyone about it. He hasn't even showed up at school for several weeks because he is constantly getting high and/or drunk. One of those days gets arrested for theft, vandalism, or attacking a school teacher or a family member. While in detention, tries to commit suicide. Winds up in treatment."
Where do video games and movies fit in this story? A lot of these kids didn't have video games. SES does play a role, and a lot of these kids are from trailer parks and ghettos. There are several who upper middle-class, but most are adopted (by absolute psychos who nature did not allow them to be parents for a good reason). A lot of these adoptive parents are born-again Christians who don't let their kids play with anything that is not G or doesn't say "Jesus" or "Disney" on its cover. If they did play them, they would play it at the house of other juvenile delinquents OR normal (non-delinquent) friends. For some 'strange' reason, the non-FUBAR kids keep playing the same video games while never getting arrested for anything or going Columbine.
There was one kid who was reviewed to be accepted at our facility recently, roughly age 16. He was adopted by some crazy people who had a hard time dealing with his reactive behavior. Their solution: they locked him in a shed for a full month. The school didn't bother to call home or investigate why a student had not shown up for class for ONE MONTH. When they finally did, the kid was released from the shed, and, as expected, was really messed up.
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