1993–94 United States Senate hearings on video games
hearing in the Senate of the USA on 7 December 1993 and 5 March 1994 regarding violent video games
On December 9, 1993, and March 4, 1994, members of the combined United States Senate Committees on Governmental Affairs and the Judiciary held congressional hearings with several spokespersons for companies in the video game industry including Nintendo and Sega, involving violence in video games and the perceived impacts on children. The hearing was a result of concerns raised by members of the public on the 1993 releases of Night Trap, Mortal Kombat and later Doom which was released after the first hearing. Besides general concerns related to violence in video games, the situation had been inflamed by a moral panic over gun violence, as well as the state of the industry and an intense rivalry between Sega and Nintendo.
The hearings, led by Senators Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl, put the video game companies to task for the realistic depiction of violence in video games, and threatened that Congress would take action to regulate the industry if they did not take steps themselves. As a result, the American video game industry created the Interactive Digital Software Association (now known as the Entertainment Software Association) in July 1994 to serve as an advocacy group for the industry, and subsequently formed the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to provide content ratings on video games sold at retail in North America.
Background
Since as early as the 1970s, video games have been criticized for having violent content that psychologically influence players. In 1982, the Surgeon General C. Everett Koop asserted that video games may be affecting the health and well-being of young people and were potentially addictive. However, until the 1990s, the perceived target market for video games was generally for children, and manufacturers of video games typically did not include high levels of graphic violence in their games. Most computer game software would be sold through toy stores like Toys 'R' Us or general retail outlets like Sears and Wal-Mart, rather than computer stores.
State of the industry
By 1993, the video game industry had recovered from the 1983 crash, and was estimated to be worth US$6 billion.
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