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Video games entered the vice-y realms of drinking and stripping as the L.A. City Council agreed to an ordinance regulating public internet parlors - specifically, the kinds designed to run high-end online games. There are about 30 establishments in the city that qualify as "cyber-cafes" under the new rules. Councilman Dennis Zine pushed the legislation after a string of cafe-related shootings in his district.
Mack Reed at LA Voice is pissed, but it seems to us like this is a worthwhile issue. The Times reports that one gamer said teenagers are critical to the survival of the Cafes, whether they play "during school hours or not."
That doesn't seem quite right. LAist has heard of more than one case of groups of young kids who combine hard drugs with cyber-cafe marathons to distastrous effects. As real shootings have occured near the cafes with alarming frequency, the city would be derelict if it didn't respond. If the restrictions stay reasonable, and the police enforce them cleanly, this appears to be a good approach to a legitimate problem.
Forever talkative Councilman Tom LaBonge, never one to miss a chance to wax historical, compared the cafes to pool halls and said he'd rather see L.A.'s youth "on sports fields or in dancing academies." The Times article also says: "But he added that he knew teenagers liked to play video games."
I'm sure he did.
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"The Times reports that one gamer said teenagers are critical to the survival of the Cafes, whether they play "during school hours or not."
That doesn't seem quite right. LAist has heard of more than one case of groups of young kids who combine hard drugs with cyber-cafe marathons to distastrous effects. "
Uh, where are their parents?
Oooh, LAist has heard of more than one case... "Young kids" will combine "hard drugs" with just about anything, especially more/other "hard drugs."
Really, if "cyber-cafe marathons" are what the kids are doing these days, maybe we should let them be. Dancing academies are nice and all, but I would rather have my kid in a cyber cafe (all coked up or not) than, say, on a petty larceny marathon or an unprotected sex marathon.
Aside from the drug concerns, most of the shootings and violence have been due to gang-related activity, not gaming activity. Roving packs of fan boys and gamers are not running amok shooting each other outside cyber cafes. They much prefer shooting at each other in the cafes—where they go to do relatively quiet, sedentary activities like play videogames.
I've known a number of teenagers who go to cyber cafes so that they can hang out with their friends in person while they play games, rather than sitting at home in their bedrooms with no social interaction at all. When they do go out, the worst crimes they are guilty of are truancy, breaking curfew, and using up a lot of power. Those sound like some hardcore criminals to me.
I dunno guys, I saw a bunch of kids from school get expelled for the truancy that came from an addiction to crystal meth and counterstrike... I'm a gamer myself, I've got a nice row of playstation and gamecube titles on the shelf (sold the xbox a few months back). I even take the time to beat most of the games I pick up. But I don't see a problem with restrictions against kids whittling their school time away in front of a first person shooter.
and while we can all hope the general state of parenting gets better, i feel that operators who turn a blind eye to cracked-out 16 year olds who come in to rent more gaming time deserve to get hassled a bit. imho.
Tom writes: "and while we can all hope the general state of parenting gets better, i feel that operators who turn a blind eye to cracked-out 16 year olds who come in to rent more gaming time deserve to get hassled a bit. imho."
I see - so now it's up to the cyber cafe operators to determine who's truant from school, high on drugs, has a gaming addiction, or some other problem and turn them away because some parents are too lazy to take an interest in their children.
Less laws & lawsuits and more personal responsibility, please.
Trackback doesn't seem to be working yet so...
"WHORE!!! That's what one of my co-workers used to shout out when he nailed somebody in Half-Life (or Counterstrike, technically, if you want to split hairs about it =) See, I used to work at a cyber-cafe in college..."
Read More at...
http://www.antinomian.com/archives/000423.shtml
If Garden Grove's permit requirement was struck down by the courts due to the First Amendment, why would LA's permit system be any better? (see my post at http://www.socallawblog.com/archives/001668.html)
If gangs are a problem, the cops should... go after the gangs. If a cybercafe serves their customers past their limit, then the parents should complain and sue the company or try a boycott. Some libertarian ideas make sense occasionally.
Alternatively, we can invite Nanny Bloomberg to come here and issue a report on all the things L.A. should do to "improve" itself.
(Never been here before, but when I tried to select text from above it selected everything before the caret, even after I dragged the mouse over the text I wanted to select.
I've also tried to post this comment two times, each time getting a 404 at gothamist. Let's try again).