The New York State Senate is currently evaluating a new video game bill that is causing some concern in the industry. 

Drafted by Assemblyman Joseph Lentol, Proposition A11717, passed yesterday by the New York State Assembly, would require new consoles to be "equipped" with parental controls, create a governmental advisory board consisting of 16 member, and require game packaging to display ESRB ratings.

As GamePolitics explains, the advisory board/counsil would be given the task of examining the content in a game and make recommendations for the ESRB rating.  It would also work on establishing "a parent-teacher violence awareness program to identify and appropriately assist students who  may  have  a  propensity toward violence."

The State Senate version of this bill is credited to Republican Andrew Lanza; if passed, it will join the Assembly version and be sent upstream to Governor David Paterson, and if signed, will take affect on September 1.

Not surprisingly, the ESA is encouraging New York based members of its Video Game Voters Network to contact their local officials and oppose the new bill.

Now I know that most consoles out there today do have parental control options -- Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, Sony's PSP, PlayStation 2 and 3.  Call me dense, but I fail to see an obvious problem here.  Is New York trying to make parental controls a default setting?  And last I checked, all my games have a rating on the box, so did people want the rating to cover the entire thing like tiled wallpaper?

Two years ago, BBC News did a story that showed most parents in the UK ignore Mature ratings for video games, thinking their children were mature enough to remain above the game's influence.  It was a noble effort to dissipate the heavy blame that had befallen the gaming industry and rating boards, but where's the fun in that?  After all, it's so much easier to just point fingers rather than do some independent research before throwing away 60 USD on Grand Theft Auto for their twelve year old.

The ESRB does its job, so maybe the parents should do their own.  Here, let me help: Parent Previews.  My work here is done.