Family Entertainment Protection Act

All you want to know about Family Entertainment Protection Act

The United States Family Entertainment Protection Act (FEPA) was a bill introduced by Senator Hillary Clinton, and co-sponsored by Senators Joe Lieberman, Tim Johnson and Evan Bayh on November 29, 2005. The bill called for a federal mandate enforcement of the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings system for video games in order to protect children from inappropriate content.^[1]

The FEPA would impose fines of $1000 dollars or 100 hours of community service for a first time offense of selling a "Mature" or "Adult-Only" rated video game to a minor, and $5000 or 500 hours for each subsequent offense. The bill also called for a FTC investigation into the ESRB to ascertain whether they have been properly rating games.^[2]

Similar bills have been filed in some U.S. states such as Michigan and Illinois, but were ruled to be unconstitutional.^{[citation needed]} (see Patrick R. Byrd, It’s All Fun And Games Until Someone Gets Hurt: The Effectiveness Of Proposed Video-Game Legislation On Reducing Violence In Children, at http://www.houstonlawreview.org/archive/downloads/44-2_pdf/5_Byrd.pdf)

This bill did not become law; it was referred to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and expired at the end of the 109th session of Congress without further action.^[3]

References

^ "Senators Clinton, Lieberman Announce Federal Legislation to Protect Children from Inappropriate Video Games". Retrieved on December 18, 2005.
^ GameSpot. "Game-restriction bill submitted to congress". Retrieved on December 18, 2005.
^ Govtrack.us. "S. 2126 [109th]: Family Entertainment Protection Act". Retrieved on 2007-08-31.

External links

McCauley, Dennis. "Hillary Introduces Video Game Legislation", Gamepolitics.com, December 16, 2005

Criticism

v • d • e

Video game controversy

Computer and
video game law

Family Entertainment Protection Act · Truth in Video Game Rating Act · Video Game Decency Act · Video Recordings Act 1984 · California Assembly Bills 1792 & 1793 · Greek electronic game ban

Organizations and
rating systems

Active	Entertainment Software Rating Board · Pan European Game Information · Computer Entertainment Rating Organization · Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle · National Coalition Against Censorship · TIGRS · Valtion elokuvatarkastamo · Game Rating Board · British Board of Film Classification · Office of Film and Literature Classification (Australia) · Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand) · Internet Content Rating Association

Defunct	Videogame Rating Council · Recreational Software Advisory Council · 3DO Rating System · Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association · Korea Media Rating Board

Major figures

Lawsuits	James v. Meow Media · Strickland v. Sony · Entertainment Software Association v. Foti

Individuals	Evan Bayh · Fred Upton · Herb Kohl · Hillary Rodham Clinton · Jack Thompson · Joe Lieberman · Julia Boseman · Keith Vaz · Leland Yee · Rick Santorum · Sam Brownback · Tim Johnson