PC Rooms: Rated M For Mockery

Posters Name: Anthos
Posters Email: Anthos@mwgl.org
Subject: PC Rooms: Rated M For Mockery

News:
This article caught my eye while browsing CS-Nation's website. It speaks mostly to LAN gaming centers and the lack of ID checking for a place that caters mainly to computer games with Mature ratings. Here's a bit of a preview:

Critics contend that such arcades have created a wide loophole in the already haphazard effort to keep children from access to games designed for adults. The PC rooms, which charge users about $5 an hour, typically do not check players' ages or limit access to games like Counter-Strike, which is rated M, meaning that it is for players 17 and older.

Opponents contend that the PC rooms are the equivalent of movie theaters that admit schoolchildren to R-rated movies on an unlimited and unchecked basis.

"It undermines the integrity of the rating system," said Dan Gerstein, a spokesman for Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, who has called on retailers to refrain from selling adult-rated games to children. "If arcade operators are applying their own standard, that's not fair to parents."