The film industry adopted its voluntary rating system to escape government regulation after a Supreme Court ruling in 1968 gave states and cities the right to prevent exposing children to certain books and films. Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, remembers quarreling with studio executives over the content of films that increasingly reflected the turbulent culture, such as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Blow-Up."

Games such as Mortal Kombat, Night Trap and Splatterhouse 3 are forcing the ratings issue in the video game industry. Night Trap, a scene from which was shown at Thursday's Senate hearing, is a realistic-looking vampire game released by Sega in which young women have the blood drained from their bodies.

[Howard C. Lincoln]'s comments contrasted with those of Bill White, a senior vice president at Sega. White argued that violent video games such as Night Trap are intended for, and marketed primarily to, adults.