The Minnesota House of Representatives has passed a new bill which proposes a USD 25 civil penalty for minors who knowingly buy or rent Mature or Adult Only ESRB-rated videogames.

The previous attempts to release such a law failed. Republican representative Jeff Johnson’s bill would not impose fines on retailers and merchants, but simply requires videogames outlets to clearly display ESRB ratings signs and information.

“We were trying to pass the narrowest bill possible just to try something different from a constitutional challenge standpoint,” but admits that he fully expects the ESA to challenge the proposal and already foresees the potential legal obstacles in attempting to secure the bill’s implementation into law.

“There are two potential constitutional problems,” Johnson stated. “One is that we are using the ESRB ratings. I can see a court saying you can’t use private industry to create the law, but there’s no way around that because everything else anyone has tried has been unsuccessful.”

The whole point is that till now no law based on the fact that no court found a link between violent or graphic videogames and youth violence or aggressive, anti-social behavior.

If he will manage to get that link, which I doubt, the Minnesota bill will become law on August 1st if it is signed by the Governor and withstands any legal challenge in the interim.

Let’s see if this attempt will succeed. We expect comments as we are sure you have something to say about this.