RTD won't ditch video-game ads

Violent, sexual content cited by advocacy groups

Eric Schmidt, Daily Camera

Published March 28, 2007 at midnight

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Regional Transportation District directors Tuesday rejected a campaign to keep advertisements for mature- and adult-rated video games off agency buses and trains.

The Parents Television Council and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood asked the board in February to prohibit ads for games rated M for mature or AO for adults only, saying such promotions expose young riders to graphic violence and explicit sexual content. The groups cited ads for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories - which appeared on light-rail trains last fall - as evidence that the agency should change its advertising standards, which specifically exclude only tobacco products.

RTD's Operations, Customer Service and Marketing Committee recommended that the board adopt the ban. But after receiving legal advice in an executive session, directors voted 12-3 against the change.

"It was a tough decision because I think our hearts as a board were with trying to limit exposure to advertisements that promote violence," Boulder board member John Tayer said. "But the overwhelming weight of the legal advice was that if we pursued this, we would face an uphill battle in court."

Peggi O'Keefe, a representative of the Entertainment Software Association, spoke to the board on behalf of companies that sell video games. She called the proposed policy change "both unnecessary and unconstitutional."

O'Keefe said the industry's Entertainment Software Rating Board already enforces strict guidelines about which games are appropriate for minors and how those products can be advertised. Video games are protected speech, she said, and courts have struck down laws seeking to limit access to them based on their subject matter.

"This proposal . . . would restrict fully protected expression on the basis of content," she said. "Such restrictions are constitutionally impermissible."

Proponents of the ban did not speak at Tuesday's meeting. But George Robison, chapter director of the Parents Television Council, told board members in February that they could "take a step toward being a better steward of the public good . . . by no longer accepting advertising from violent video games that can have long-term harmful effects on the youth in our community."

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