felix-reichert
02-13-2007, 10:09 PM
Hey.
The law proposed by the free state of Bavaria will be debated in the Bundestag (the centralist German chamber - There's also a federal one) this friday (16th of february). You can find the German original here (http://www.bundesrat.de/cln_050/SharedDocs/Drucksachen/2007/0001-0100/76-07,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/76-07.pdf)
I've tried to translate the introduction, and I'm gonna post it here.
Feel free to comment and correct me, especially if some of my sentences sound odd - I've tried to translate it as direct as possible (and also in regards of the use commata - that's something I never really could grasp in English). Took my about one and a half hour. Puh. I guess I'll continue the work, especially if the debate on friday will have a bad outcome...
(*These*) are comments by me.
So here we go.
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Law-Motion
Of the Free State of Bavaria
Bill to improve the "legal protection of minors" (*That's one word in German*)
(A) Problem and Goal
Few years after the bloody deeds in Bad Reichenhall 1999 and in Erfurt 2002 female and male citizens are deeply shocked in the face of the new violent deed in Emsdetten 2006. The person running amok possessed a lot of youth-endangering media. Scientific findings prove that especially so called Killergames, which involve human-disdaining acts of violence, can have a violence-dulling effect, and for certain labile characters also a stimulating one. Sure are some effects of violent games still debated. But many scientific findings suggest a harmful effect especially on youths. Under today’s state of research particularly no sound doubts remain that the contact with such media especially with children, youths and people still growing up, but also with adults, holds the danger of imitation and stupefaction which can than cause harmful consequences for the community (*Sure! All valid and well respected scientists I guess*) The horrible incidents show that measures are necessary to particularly protect children and youths from violent excesses in the form of human-disdaining. In the past years there sure were improvements in the area of the legal protection of minors to face the growing endangerment in the media-sector. This is not sufficient as the recent horrible act of violence in Emsdetten shows.
(B) Solution
This law therefore provides a ban of virtual violent-games. It includes gameprograms that depict cruel and inhumane acts of violence against humans and human-like beings and that allow the player to participate in these depicted acts of violence. Furthermore real violent-games that are suitable to reduce players in their human dignity are to be banned. (*They really mean Gotcha/Paintball with that...*) With such a ban the endangerments that originate in such game designs are countered effectively(*Sure, just as with drugs*). This law, except providing these changes in the penal-code and the infringement-code, also provides changes in the law of the protection of minors, to therefore make clear decisions in favour of the protection of minors. With it the following sanctions are covered:
- Ban of obviously seriously youth endangering media
- Improvement of the indexing of media (*The "index of youth endangering media" is a quite old institution in Germany. Media, that lands on it can not be publically shown - only in special areas where only people over 18 can enter - and commercial promotion of such titles is also illegal - the media itself can still be legally bought by adults*)
- Improvement in the field of the voluntary self-regulation (*Of the videogame industry age-ratings*)
- Improvement with screen-devices without profit-possibility in public
- Increase of possible fines in the law for the protection of minors from 50 000 Euro to 500 000 Euro
(C) Alternatives (*This is the best part*)
None
(D) Financial effects on the public budget
In view of the changes in the penal-code, in the infringement-code and in the law for the protection of minors a slight increase of cost in the criminal prosecution agency and the regulatory agency are expected. However, this aspect, in line of a consideration has to recede in favour of the protection of minors.
(E) Other costs
None
The law proposed by the free state of Bavaria will be debated in the Bundestag (the centralist German chamber - There's also a federal one) this friday (16th of february). You can find the German original here (http://www.bundesrat.de/cln_050/SharedDocs/Drucksachen/2007/0001-0100/76-07,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/76-07.pdf)
I've tried to translate the introduction, and I'm gonna post it here.
Feel free to comment and correct me, especially if some of my sentences sound odd - I've tried to translate it as direct as possible (and also in regards of the use commata - that's something I never really could grasp in English). Took my about one and a half hour. Puh. I guess I'll continue the work, especially if the debate on friday will have a bad outcome...
(*These*) are comments by me.
So here we go.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Law-Motion
Of the Free State of Bavaria
Bill to improve the "legal protection of minors" (*That's one word in German*)
(A) Problem and Goal
Few years after the bloody deeds in Bad Reichenhall 1999 and in Erfurt 2002 female and male citizens are deeply shocked in the face of the new violent deed in Emsdetten 2006. The person running amok possessed a lot of youth-endangering media. Scientific findings prove that especially so called Killergames, which involve human-disdaining acts of violence, can have a violence-dulling effect, and for certain labile characters also a stimulating one. Sure are some effects of violent games still debated. But many scientific findings suggest a harmful effect especially on youths. Under today’s state of research particularly no sound doubts remain that the contact with such media especially with children, youths and people still growing up, but also with adults, holds the danger of imitation and stupefaction which can than cause harmful consequences for the community (*Sure! All valid and well respected scientists I guess*) The horrible incidents show that measures are necessary to particularly protect children and youths from violent excesses in the form of human-disdaining. In the past years there sure were improvements in the area of the legal protection of minors to face the growing endangerment in the media-sector. This is not sufficient as the recent horrible act of violence in Emsdetten shows.
(B) Solution
This law therefore provides a ban of virtual violent-games. It includes gameprograms that depict cruel and inhumane acts of violence against humans and human-like beings and that allow the player to participate in these depicted acts of violence. Furthermore real violent-games that are suitable to reduce players in their human dignity are to be banned. (*They really mean Gotcha/Paintball with that...*) With such a ban the endangerments that originate in such game designs are countered effectively(*Sure, just as with drugs*). This law, except providing these changes in the penal-code and the infringement-code, also provides changes in the law of the protection of minors, to therefore make clear decisions in favour of the protection of minors. With it the following sanctions are covered:
- Ban of obviously seriously youth endangering media
- Improvement of the indexing of media (*The "index of youth endangering media" is a quite old institution in Germany. Media, that lands on it can not be publically shown - only in special areas where only people over 18 can enter - and commercial promotion of such titles is also illegal - the media itself can still be legally bought by adults*)
- Improvement in the field of the voluntary self-regulation (*Of the videogame industry age-ratings*)
- Improvement with screen-devices without profit-possibility in public
- Increase of possible fines in the law for the protection of minors from 50 000 Euro to 500 000 Euro
(C) Alternatives (*This is the best part*)
None
(D) Financial effects on the public budget
In view of the changes in the penal-code, in the infringement-code and in the law for the protection of minors a slight increase of cost in the criminal prosecution agency and the regulatory agency are expected. However, this aspect, in line of a consideration has to recede in favour of the protection of minors.
(E) Other costs
None