Today K-Mart and WalMart announced that they will start requiring picture idea for people who want to buy violent video games. And that means everyone will have to show ID. The retailers plan to set it up just like with alcohol or tobacco, where the cash register prompts the teller to ask for ID.
This is insane. The last time I was in a WalMart and K-Mart they both stocked toy guns, as well as an assortment of other violent toys (I was lusting after a Phantom Menace lightsaber at the time). How long before they stop selling toys to children as well?
The funny thing is they are not even going to target the really dangerous games — the turn-based strategy games. Apparently they are only worried about the effect that playing Duke Nuke Em or Unreal: Tournament will have. I would have no problem with my kid playing those games. What worries me is when my wife is playing Civilization II and she starts lobbing nuclear weapons all over the place (she regularly violates numerous principles of international law), or when she switches to Alpha Centauri and I catch her nerve stapling her population. Now that is something to worry about.