Everyone knows Jack Thompson from his notorious Modest Proposal about violence in video games. The online gaming community just seems to parrot out how he's an absurd, crazy, sue-happy Jesus Freak. His recent fit about "reviews" of his book on Amazon.com served to malign him further.
The problem with Jack Thompson is a common one among politicians and public figures: "The end justifies the means."
"The end justifies the means" is the argument that abortion clinic bombers and other terrorists use. Is it okay to lie, murder, cheat, steal, as long as the motive and the end result is a positive one? Would it be okay to kill Hitler when he was a child in cold blood? You may think the answer to that is blindingly obvious with 20/20 hindsight, but a rational, civilized society should emphatically say: NO.
Jack Thompson's ends (at least the ones he claims) are rational and hard to disagree with: don't market smut and gorey violence to minors. One would be hard pressed to find someone who thinks minors should be exposed to such content. The problem is, then, who does Jack Thompson blame for such exposure, who should be responsible, and how can exposure be reduced.
While I don't know what Mr. Thompson has said on the subject of parental responsibility, he has certainly attacked the gaming industry itself. I think the industry as a whole has been pretty good about establishing a rating system to let parents know what kind of content is in a game. M is the same as an R movie rating, AO is the same as NC-17. Unfortunately for both movies and games, these ratings are not enforced by the retail vendors. Under 17 kids can get into R rates movies with little or no hassle. They can buy M rated games at many stores with no hassle whatsoever.
So how do we fix this? Jack has gone right to America's favorite tool of forced change and entertainment: litigation. Perhaps Jack (being a lawyer) only has the one proverbial hammer and every problem looks like the proverbial nail. Perhaps he thinks that the situation is so dire, with kids killing and dying left and right because of the influence of video games that it's okay to stretch the truth, threaten litigation, and call the police on anyone even hinting dissent so long as it stops the bloodbath.
This is not the way to prohibit kids from getting ahold of adult content. The fact is that if a parent doesn't care to take an interest in the media their children are consuming that children will get their hands on it no matter what.
If movie theaters and game stores aren't checking ID enough, let's enforce laws prohibiting the sale of this stuff to minors. We don't need new laws, we just need to enforce existing ones. If a theater sells an R-rated ticket to a minor, let's fine them. If a game store sells an M-rated game to a minor, let's fine them. If Blockbuster sells/rents an R-rated movie to a minor, let's fine them. But ultimately, if a parent expects the entertainment industry to raise their children, no amount of industry regulation is going to turn a bad parent into a good one.