Clinton Would Crack Down on Computer-Generated Cartoon Sex By Kevin Poulsen EmailDecember 21, 2007 | 3:46:11 PMCategories: Election '08 Hot_coffee_2 Hillary Clinton is still outraged that Rockstar Games left a sexually-themed mini game nestled in its best-selling Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2005.
Clinton_3 You'll recall the kafuffle when the deactivated love scene was found buried in the code for the otherwise wholesome car jacking, cop-killing shooter. The unfinished mini-game featured clothed characters simulating sex acts. To access the scene, randy teens had to download and install a special patch developed by a Dutch coder, expending more effort than it takes to find real, human adult content on the web.
That all led some cynics to suspect Clinton of grandstanding when she called a press conference to denounce Rockstar and demand a Federal Trade Commission investigation into San Andreas. The ESRB re-rated the game to AO for "adults only," raising the minimum age of purchase from 17 to 18 years old -- a crucial year in which a teen develops the necessary psychological defenses to resist the Siren song of polygon porn.
But in a response to a questionnaire from the watchdog group Common Sense Media, Clinton reveals today that she still sees the affair as a victory for child safety. She describe her introduction of the doomed Family Entertainment Protection Act as a response to the "illicit" sexual content in San Andreas, and says, as president, she'd support regulation of the gaming industry.
"When I am President, I will work to protect children from inappropriate video game content," she told CSM.
That puts her on the same page as Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who told CSM that the U.S. needs to "get serious against those retailers that sell adult video games that are filled with violence and that we go after those retailers." Clinton's fellow Democrats John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson said they'd rather give the industry a chance to self-regulate, at least initially.
Clinton's Family Entertainment Protection Act would have made it a federal offense to sell adult-rated video games to minors. It never passed, but similar state laws have been struck down as unconstitutional. Clinton's co-sponsor on the bill, Joseph Lieberman, had his own video game nemesis: Stubbs the Zombie, who, like too many politicians, needs braaiiiins.
(Hat tip: GamePolitics.com.)
