So this is done by the US Government rather than a quango?

Looks like an USA thing. Me no care.

I doubt this will work for the reasons others have stated. That said, if they can find a means of keeping 12 year olds away from online mature-rated games, then I'm all for it.

whats the problem Australia has always had this. there is no problem if you want a game and you are not old enough then you get some one else to buy it for you. the only problem is that there is not adult rating so games like GTA, L4D 2 and Fallout are edited so people can get them which sucks. and then people who are 15 can get those game and more.

umm the average age of gamers are 35 

It would be good, since devolopers would make more violent games and games involving sensitive issues like civilans in war games (rare). Because currently there is a public perception that gamers are all below 18 which is totally wrong. 

But if they class Super Mario Bros as violent, that will be the end of Nintendo in the US 

This is the prophecy of the Blackest Night. 

Here in the uk a government body (BBFC) regulated the games industry content until last year when it was handed over to PEGI(which is the european self regulating body overseen by the EU parliament). The BBFC has to date only banned one game and that was Manhunt 2, which was then later lifted. BBFC is still the film regulator.

So, except for one game that was banned and then had that ban lifted there has been no issue.

I am not completely clued up on how american law works but here, every word requires clarification before a law is passed. If that is not the same there  then the problem is not with a government body regulating the industry but with the political system as a whole. The word "violent" should be clarified before the bill is passed into law no?

I'm 15 and this is simply infuriating.

I don't need the government to tell me right from wrong and hold my hand into the land of gumdrops and safety. I know what's in a mature game, I decide I don't care, buy it, and play it. The biggest thing is my psyche doesn't get "irreversibly damaged" though. I doubt any video game could do that to anyone which makes this thing utterly pointless.

This is stupid, of course kids shouldn't be sold violent video games. Infact, this is already the case in the majority of the world.

It can be problematic when done wrong, as in Australia where the highest classification, for video games only, but not for other media, is 15 , and anything that is not suitably for 15 year olds in banned outright.

It could stop a 12 year old buying a M17 rated game in America,

Or a 17 year old buying a PG13 rated game in America.

Basically this law makes age ratings as a guide for selling games irrelevent because each state can now legally enforce its own guidelines. For example a PG-13 game is now (in real terms) an 18 rated restricted product because it meets the guidelines set by a state. This is the exact opposite of what Europe is trying to do by unifying its rating system under a single classification system (PEGI) and instead in America you will have as many classification systems as there are states who want to impose restrictions. It's a nightmare for games companies and anti sensorship bodies and games companies will have to balance wanting to release their game unsensored which the reality that it will be a restricted product in several states as a result. Games companies are not going to release several versions of their game throughout America to meet each of the states criteria, Americans will just get one censored version.

I think the big issue is that gamers don't really understand the legislation and think that this law is just legally enforcing the sale of the existing rating system when it is doing the opposite and allowing individual states to completely ignore it in favour of thier own rating systems.