(CNSNews.com) - Reps. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah) held a press conference Wednesday to introduce legislation that would require identification checks for minors who try to buy or rent video games rated M (Mature) or AO (Adults Only) by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. The bill would also impose a $5,000 fine on retailers who fail to comply.

"Many young children are walking into stores and are able to buy or rent these games without their parents even knowing about it," Rep. Terry said in a statement. "Many retailers have tried to develop voluntary policies to make sure mature games do not end up in the hands of young kids, but we need to do more to protect our children. ... Families and children everywhere deserve the protection this legislation will provide."

At the conference, Dan Isett, director of corporate and government affairs at the Parents Television Council (PTC), also spoke in defense of the legislation.

"The entertainment industry would have us believe that these brutally violent games have little effect on the player, and that a ratings system exists that supposedly prevents the sale of mature-rated games to minors," said Isett. "Yet the Federal Trade Commission has found [in a 2005 study] that more then 40 percent of all kids were able to walk into a store and leave with an M-rated game, despite assurances from the video game industry and retailers that safeguards were in place to protect children from games that are clearly inappropriate for them.

"Combine the fact that retailers continue to do a poor job of screening sales of M-rated games with the relentless marketing campaign for a major release," he said, "and it's clear that parents alone cannot protect kids from these games."

"Even the members of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board's Retail Council ... as recently as last November sold M-rated games to minors more than 20 percent of the time," said Isett. "What is the consequence for retailers who act irresponsibly and sell mature games to kids? There is none." (Disclosure: The PTC was founded by L. Brent Bozell III, the president of CNSNews.com.)

In an interview with Cybercast News Service , Isett added, "We do know that these games continue to become ever-more violent, ever-more sexually graphic, and continue to push the envelope."

"If you look at what a myriad of different scientific associations have to say about the effects of video game violence, there all essentially similar - there are harmful, negative effects in children of exposure to video games like [these]," he said. "At some point, [games with adult material have] to be classified as other products that are harmful to minors."

Concerning the recently released game "Grand Theft Auto IV," Isett said: "A reasonable question here, is, in a game where you get extra points for hitting and urinating on the body of a prostitute after she's serviced you, why on earth that's not an Adult Only[-rated] game is beyond me." The game is currently rated M, indicating inappropriate content for children 17 years of age and younger.

Data from the 2007 Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry , a report listed on the Web site of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), however, cast doubts on Isett and the congressmen's key points.

According to the ESA, 71.8 percent of gamers are over the age of 18, and the average age of American game players is 33.

Among those households that have a computer or console to play games, parents are present when their children purchase or rent a game 91 percent of the time; 86 percent of the time, children received permission from their parents before purchasing or renting a video game; and, 90 percent of the time, parents reported always or sometimes monitoring the games their children play.

The data in the ESA's fact sheet were taken from a sample of 1,200 nationally representative households.

Isett rejected the findings of ESA's survey as less authoritative as the findings of the PTC and the Retail Council studies of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board.

Michael D. Gallager, president of the ESA, told Cybercast News Service in a statement that "the ESA shares Representatives Matheson and Terry's goal of ensuring children are playing parent-approved computer and video games. That is why the ESA consistently works with parent groups, encouraging caregivers to check each game's ESRB rating and content descriptors-a system three-quarters of parents rely on regularly, according to the Federal Trade Commission. We also urge parents to make use of the parental controls available on all new game consoles."

"Empowering parents, not enacting unconstitutional legislation," said Gallagher, "is the best way to control the games children play."

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