Robert Nardolillo is a Republican member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives. Recently, the politician announced that he will be introducing legislation that would add a ten-percent tax to all M-rated video games sold in Rhode Island. Proceeds for this proposed bill would reportedly go to fund mental health initiatives and counseling for students.
"There is evidence that children exposed to violent video games at a young age tend to act more aggressively than those who are not," Nardolillo said in a press release. "This bill would give schools the additional resources needed to help students deal with that aggression in a positive way."
This kind of bill would likely affect sales of M-rated games in Rhode Island, but we’ll have to wait and see how close a bill like this actually gets towards becoming law.
[Source: PCGamer]
Our Take
This statement comes hot on the heels of President Trump's statement about violence and video games, which makes us feel like video games are being used as a scapegoat for some of the recent violent attacks in our country. As we mentioned in that story, according to a consumer research study, the ESRB has a stronger self-regulatory code than either movies or music, so curbing the sale of violent video games might not be the easy fix that some would like.