Activist Who Once Called Video Games "Killographic" Praises The ESRB Grand Theft Auto Rating, Boos Proposed $5,000 Fine

Phil Villarreal of the Arizona Daily Star has located a more reasonable voice to weigh in on the GTAIV controversy in (surprisingly enough) National Institute on Media and the Family founder, David Walsh. Walsh has been praising the ESRB for its “improved enforcement of not selling M-rated games to kids,” and says he trusts the ESRB’s “M” rating for Grand Theft Auto IV.

Walsh told Villarreal:

“We don’t want to go down any path that starts to go down toward censorship,” Walsh said. “I really believe First Amendment rights are very important. I don’t want the solution to the problem to be bigger than the problem itself.”

Walsh and the NIMF oppose the proposed legislation that the Parents Television Council has been promoting by (incorrectly) claiming that GTA IV rewarded “points for drunk driving.”

“What we really need to do is get kind of in the middle. [Philmguy]

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