| 1 | The Business Regulation Committee recommends the following: |
| 2 |
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| 3 | Council/Committee Substitute |
| 4 | Remove the entire bill and insert: |
| 5 | A bill to be entitled |
| 6 | An act relating to violent video games; providing |
| 7 | legislative intent; providing definitions; prohibiting a |
| 8 | person from selling or renting a video game to a minor, or |
| 9 | allowing a minor to play a video game in a video arcade, |
| 10 | if the video game has been labeled as a violent video |
| 11 | game; providing that having requested identification from |
| 12 | a person purchasing a video game or playing a video game |
| 13 | in a video arcade is an affirmative defense to any action |
| 14 | filed under the act; providing exceptions; requiring that |
| 15 | each violent video game that is imported into or |
| 16 | distributed in this state for retail sale, rental, or |
| 17 | playing in a video arcade be labeled in a specified |
| 18 | manner; authorizing an enforcing authority to commence a |
| 19 | civil action to seek injunctive relief to restrain or |
| 20 | enjoin a person from violating the act or to impose a |
| 21 | civil penalty; providing for a civil penalty applicable to |
| 22 | a person who possesses managerial responsibility for a |
| 23 | business entity selling, renting, or playing a violent |
| 24 | video game; providing that attorney's fees and costs may |
| 25 | be awarded under certain circumstances; directing that any |
| 26 | civil penalty recovered be deposited into the General |
| 27 | Revenue Fund; providing that a violation of the act is a |
| 28 | misdemeanor; providing an effective date. |
| 29 |
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| 30 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 31 |
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| 32 | Section 1. Distribution of violent video games to minors |
| 33 | prohibited; penalties.-- |
| 34 | (1) The Legislature finds that: |
| 35 | (a) Minors who are exposed to depictions of violence in |
| 36 | video games are more likely to experience feelings of |
| 37 | aggression, to experience a reduction of activity in the frontal |
| 38 | lobes of the brain, and to exhibit violent antisocial or |
| 39 | aggressive behavior. |
| 40 | (b) Even minors who do not commit acts of violence suffer |
| 41 | psychological harm from prolonged exposure to violent video |
| 42 | games. |
| 43 | (c) This state has a compelling interest in preventing |
| 44 | violent, aggressive, and antisocial behavior and in preventing |
| 45 | psychological or neurological harm to minors who play violent |
| 46 | video games. |
| 47 | (2) As used in this section, the term: |
| 48 | (a) "Cruel" means the intention to virtually inflict a |
| 49 | high degree of pain by torture or serious physical abuse of the |
| 50 | image of a victim in addition to killing the image of the |
| 51 | victim. |
| 52 | (b) "Depraved" means pleasure in the virtual killing or |
| 53 | indifference to the suffering of the image of the victim, as |
| 54 | evidenced by torture or serious physical abuse of the image of a |
| 55 | victim. |
| 56 | (c) "Enforcing authority" means a county or municipal |
| 57 | attorney, the state attorney, the Department of Legal Affairs if |
| 58 | a violation of this section occurs in more than one judicial |
| 59 | circuit, or anyone aggrieved by a violation of this section. |
| 60 | (d) "Heinous" means shockingly atrocious. For the killing |
| 61 | depicted in a video game to be heinous, it must involve |
| 62 | additional acts of torture or serious physical abuse of the |
| 63 | image of a victim as set apart from other killings. |
| 64 | (e) "Minor" has the same meaning as in s. 1.01, Florida |
| 65 | Statutes. |
| 66 | (f) "Person" has the same meaning as in s. 1.01, Florida |
| 67 | Statutes. |
| 68 | (g) "Serious physical abuse" means a significant or |
| 69 | considerable amount of injury or damage to the image of a |
| 70 | victim's body suggesting substantial risk of death, |
| 71 | unconsciousness, extreme physical pain, substantial |
| 72 | disfigurement, or substantial impairment of the function of a |
| 73 | bodily member, organ, or mental faculty. Serious physical abuse, |
| 74 | unlike torture, does not require that the victim be depicted as |
| 75 | conscious of the abuse at the time it is inflicted. However, the |
| 76 | player must specifically intend the abuse apart from the |
| 77 | killing. |
| 78 | (h) "Torture" includes mental as well as physical abuse of |
| 79 | the image of a victim. In either case, the victim must be |
| 80 | depicted as conscious of the abuse at the time it is inflicted, |
| 81 | and the player must specifically intend to virtually inflict |
| 82 | severe mental or physical pain or suffering upon the victim, |
| 83 | apart from killing the image of the victim. |
| 84 | (i) "Victim" means a life-like depiction of a human being |
| 85 | or character having substantially human characteristics. |
| 86 | (j) "Video arcade" means any premises where 10 or more |
| 87 | video game machines or devices are operated and where minors are |
| 88 | legally permitted to enter. |
| 89 | (k) "Video game" means any electronic amusement device |
| 90 | that uses a computer, microprocessor, or similar electronic |
| 91 | circuitry and its own monitor, or a device that is designed to |
| 92 | be used with a television set or a computer monitor, which |
| 93 | interacts with the user of the device. |
| 94 | (l) "Violent video game" means a video game in which the |
| 95 | options available to a player include killing, maiming, |
| 96 | dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being, |
| 97 | if those acts are depicted in the game in a manner that: |
| 98 | 1.a. A reasonable person, considering the game as a whole, |
| 99 | would find appeals to a deviant or morbid interest of minors; |
| 100 | b. Is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the |
| 101 | community concerning what is suitable for minors; and |
| 102 | c. Lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or |
| 103 | scientific value for minors; or |
| 104 | 2. Enables the player to virtually inflict serious injury |
| 105 | upon images of human beings or characters having substantially |
| 106 | human characteristics in a manner that is especially heinous, |
| 107 | cruel, or depraved in that it involves torture or serious |
| 108 | physical abuse to the image of a victim. |
| 109 |
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| 110 | Pertinent factors in determining whether a killing depicted in a |
| 111 | video game is especially heinous, cruel, or depraved include |
| 112 | infliction of gratuitous violence upon the image of a victim |
| 113 | beyond that necessary to commit the killing, needless mutilation |
| 114 | of the image of a victim's body, and helplessness of the image |
| 115 | of a victim. |
| 116 | (3) A person may not sell or rent a video game to a minor, |
| 117 | or allow a minor to play a video game in a video arcade, if the |
| 118 | video game has been labeled as a violent video game. |
| 119 | (4) Proof that a person, or his or her employee or agent, |
| 120 | demanded, was shown, and reasonably relied upon evidence that a |
| 121 | purchaser or renter of a violent video game, or the player of a |
| 122 | violent video game in a video arcade, was not a minor, or that |
| 123 | the manufacturer failed to label a violent video game as |
| 124 | required by subsection (6), is an affirmative defense to any |
| 125 | action brought under this section. Evidence of majority |
| 126 | includes, but need not be limited to, a driver's license or an |
| 127 | identification card issued to the purchaser, renter, or player |
| 128 | by a state or by the Armed Forces of the United States. |
| 129 | (5) This section does not apply if the violent video game |
| 130 | is sold or rented to a minor by the minor's parent, grandparent, |
| 131 | aunt, uncle, or legal guardian or is purchased or rented over |
| 132 | the Internet with a credit card. |
| 133 | (6) Each violent video game that is imported into or |
| 134 | distributed in this state for retail sale, rental, or playing in |
| 135 | a video arcade must be labeled with a solid white "18" outlined |
| 136 | in black of not less than 2 inches by 2 inches. The "18" must be |
| 137 | displayed on the front face of the video game package. |
| 138 | (7)(a) An enforcing authority may institute a civil action |
| 139 | in order to: |
| 140 | 1. Seek injunctive relief to immediately restrain or |
| 141 | enjoin any person from engaging in any activity in violation of |
| 142 | this section or to seek injunctive relief to enforce compliance |
| 143 | with this section. |
| 144 | 2. Impose a civil penalty for each violation of this |
| 145 | section. If the person against whom the civil penalty is sought |
| 146 | is a person who possesses managerial responsibility for a |
| 147 | business entity selling, renting, or playing a violent video |
| 148 | game, the civil penalty may be in an amount of not more than |
| 149 | $1,000 per violation. |
| 150 | (b) If a civil penalty is assessed in any litigation, the |
| 151 | enforcing authority is entitled to reasonable attorney's fees |
| 152 | and costs. |
| 153 | (c) If a civil penalty is collected, the penalty shall |
| 154 | accrue to the state and be deposited into the General Revenue |
| 155 | Fund. |
| 156 | (8)(a) A person who violates subsection (3) or subsection |
| 157 | (6) commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as |
| 158 | provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083, Florida Statutes. |
| 159 | (b) A person who commits a second or subsequent violation |
| 160 | of subsection (3) or subsection (6) commits a misdemeanor of the |
| 161 | first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. |
| 162 | 775.083, Florida Statutes. |
| 163 | Section 2. This act shall take effect October 1, 2006. |