In a previous column I mentioned the passage of House Bill 4023, Safe Games Illinois Act. Being a gamer for my entire adolescent – and to a lesser extent, “adult” – life, I had several reservations against the idea of restricting the sale and rental of video games to minors. I asked, “What were these lawmakers thinking?” I wanted to know their logic, which led to their support of the bill.

Local Illinois Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, D-Urbana, a supporter of HB 4023, agreed to answer a few of my questions and responded to some arguments I had made against the need for such an act. While her statements obviously are not representative of all 91 House members who voted in favor of HB 4023, they do provide insight into the arguments of some lawmakers.

Jakobsson cited several scientific studies as a reason for her support for HB 4023. One study found that children who played violent video games had aggressive thoughts and behaviors. Another study concluded that adolescents that played violent video games were prone to become hostile toward teachers, engage in physical fights and perform poorly in school.

When asked about HB 4023 being representative of Big Government acting as Big Parent for Illinois youth, Jakobsson said the bill’s goal was not to tell parents how to raise their children or to censor what video games companies produce.

“It gives power back to the parents to decide,” Jakobsson said. “It says these games are not appropriate unless their parents give them permission.”

But what about reports from the U.S. Department of Justice and Education, showing a decline in school violence? Jakobsson said she believed those statistics were representative of stricter school punishments and guidelines and that the concern of the state goes beyond just what happens inside the halls of a school.

“It’s important to be as proactive as possible to prevent future violence,” Jakobsson said. “We don’t want to wait around.”

And what about previous media witch hunts against literature, music, comic books, TV and movies? Jakobsson said because video games require active participation, they are set apart.

“There’s a huge difference between playing video games with violence and reading a book or watching a movie,” Jakobsson said. “The player becomes the actor in it.”

Jakobsson also said she had received several calls from constituents, asking her to support HB 4023. With these reasons and the support of several members of her constituency, it is easy to see why Jakobsson voted in favor of the Safe Games Illinois Act.

But what about the constitutionality of this law? I asked Jakobsson about the previous failures in other states that had similar laws, restricting the sales of video games to minors and how courts struck them down.

“The principle difference is the medical research data that underlies this effort,” Jakobsson said, responding to the idea that this bill might be unconstitutional. “Harvard Medical School and Indiana University have found children neurologically process violent video games differently than they do other media. None of that was presented in other cases.”

I must raise a serious contention to Jakobsson’s defense against the idea that the bill supercedes unconstitutionality because of scientific evidence. Such a defense provides a very dangerous precedent to erode the guarantees granted to the republic’s citizens.

This idea bothers me more than any previous disagreement I have held against HB 4023, that we can make laws that go against the foundational principles embodied in our esteemed Constitution, simply because of a few scientific studies.

Fellow Good Citizens, those who would take actions against the Constitution because of science represent a larger, ominous threat to our society than any teenager playing Halo 2 on an X-Box.