By a margin of 91 to 19, the Illinois House of Representatives passed House Bill 4023, the Safe Games Illinois Act, on March 16 and received praise from Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

We are now one step closer to giving the state unsurpassed and unconstitutional power to dictate decency over the digital artists, industry professionals, retailers and parents in Illinois. Blagojevich and supporters are pandering against common sense to mythical fears propagated by the post-Columbine media and fear-mongering advocates who would rather construct a villain than blame irresponsible parents for societal harms.

The Safe Games Illinois Act is an unnecessary law built on paranoia and ignorance. When the governor started his moral crusade last December, he argued that technology brought harmful influences into the household. He cited several studies that minors exposed to the horrors of the digital age became increasingly aggressive and hostile in their feelings and actions. Another cited study concluded that underaged gamers do poorly at school and were more likely to be involved in physical altercations.

Hearing such convincing scientific evidence has many thinking that either these studies have a terrible coincidence of finding the worst kids, or we’re “leaving ALL children behind” when 67 percent of U.S. households have a video game system and video game sales grew eight percent last year, bringing in $5.8 billion.

Despite the heralds who prophesize stolen lunches, playground fight clubs and shooting rampages in our schools, the U.S. government studies have proven the opposite in the 2004 report, Indicators of School Crime and Safety.

From 1992 to 2002, rates of theft and violent crime has actually decreased for students. From 1993 to 2003, there has been a 50 percent drop in the number of students who have brought a weapon to school and high school fights have decreased 3 percent. Also, in the past three years, bullying has not increased. Either the governor was ignorant of these facts, or he chose to ignore them.

But this would not mark the first time the government has decided to legislate against the ills that plague our easily swayed minds that are unable to fend evil away from our children. Every conceivable form of media has been put under a spotlight and badgered for the corruption of Good American Youth. From literature, to comic books, to rock ‘n’ roll, to television, to the movies, the advocates for the children of our nation have managed to always find yet another life-threatening form of entertainment that will turn any minor into a devious criminal. And every single time they’ve been dead wrong.

The real decay of the United States of America will not come with the advances of digital-age interactive entertainment. Instead, it will be the end when we decide to let politicians invent fictional social diseases they claim to have cures for.

GAME OVER, CONTINUE? Fellow gamers, it’s time to start digging in our pockets for quarters so we can keep playing.

Kiyoshi Martinez is a junior in journalism. His column appears on Mondays. He can be reached at [email protected].