RSSCalifornia Violent Game Law Shot Down
By Ed Oswald | Published December 22, 2005, 3:30 PM
The courts have blocked yet another state law preventing the sale of violent video games to minors. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte found that California's video game law unfairly restricts the First Amendment rights to freedom of expression.
The law made it illegal for a retailer to sell a game to a minor that included the "killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being."
Laws in Illinois and Michigan have also been previously shot down on constitutional grounds, and legislation in the city of Indianapolis and Saint Louis County, Mo. have met a similar fate.
"For the foregoing reasons, the court grants the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction," ordered Whyte's 17-page opinion. "The defendants and their agents are hereby preliminarily enjoined from enforcing any provision of the Act."
The courts continued fight against violent video game laws also calls into question whether proposed federal legislation from Senator Hillary Clinton introduced last week has any chance of success.
Whyte questioned California's claim that violent video games could cause psychological or other harm to children. He also said that the law would restrict children's First Amendment rights to freedom of information.
But supporters of violent game legislation say retailers are not holding up their end of the bargain by ahering to the ESRB rating system and refusing the sale of questionable titles to minors.
The argument may eventually make it to the Supreme Court. While the high court has said even minors have free expression rights, it has not addressed this particular topic directly.
The video game industry applauded the decision. "For the sixth time in five years, federal courts have now blocked or struck down these state and local laws seeking to regulate the sale of games to minors based on their content, and none have upheld such statutes," ESA president Douglas Lowenstein said in a statement.
Attorneys for the state are expected to appeal the decision.
Why do you have to be 18 to look at a girl in the nude, but you can virtually be any age to view or be a part of killing people in a video game.
Something is horribly wrong with that picture!
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|look, why should we have these games avalable to kids? why? should a 10 year old be playing GTA? I think not!
and if i go to buy anything like smokes or beer, i get carded, i am of age. If you go to a movie rated "R", you get carded... it's time for the GAME and the Recodring industry to be hailed under these same laws!!
think of a world where 50cent is broke, becuase the 13 year old fans cannot buy his crap music, or his pathetic game!! I am in love with this IDEA!!
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|Oh Look! Another group of Idiots have been shot down....We as Americans have constitutional rights!!! DOI! What a bunch of stupid idiots...they all deserve banished from the US. Damn you un-constitutional bas****s!!
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|I also applaud the decision of the court cause I have played violent video games since I was 7. I am now 27 and have never harmed another human being cause my parents were the ones that raised me not the tv not the video games, cause. Although I watched tv and played violent video games every chance i could. Children should have access to violent video games cause if they dont then they will be better able to deal with a similar real life situation when it comes up. Many of our soldiers are better in the field because they dont freeze up when they see a dead body. Our military pilots are better due to playing those violent video games. Please quit being old stuck-up fuddy duddys. This is not 1955 stuff has and will continue to get more violent and sexual in nature. The only thing i can say to those forever stuck in 1955, grow up, build a bridge and get over it cause its not gonna stop ever.
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|I was with you until you said that "children should have access to violent video games".
I think that is would be sad that the courts had to decide on what is right for my child other than me. The First Amendment protects all of us from these groups(Clinton), but ultimately, some believe that the laws should take the place of parenting. Parents need to take control of their home, not the courts. The courts are not babysitters and should not dictate values to us.
It is your right to see them if you wish and to have your kids play them too, but it should not be a law. Though you may have turned out to be an excellent example of an adult(we don't know that), it is not to say that all kids will act, or understand violence the same as you. We cannot, or should not, pass laws such as this.
Similarly, if this were true, the media should not be showing highlights of the disturbance in Kuwait, or any violent crime until late night when all the kids are(or should be) in bed. This might be tempting to the kid next door to run down to the neighborhood "cell" and buy that AK so he can take it to school the next day and gun down his classmates. Hell, it isn't his fault, he saw it on TV.(What?) NO, Little Johnny has detachment problems and needs therapy or to be hospitalized, institutionalized, or euthanized. We don't blame ABC, NBC, Sony, XBox, or ESPN.
IMO
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|I agree. Standards for kids should be set by the family and not by government. Every parent should make the determination as to what is "acceptable," for their own children.
If parents would get back to "parenting" and make themselves aware of what their kids are doing, we would not have government so anxious to get involved. But, lazy parents want to have kids, then make society responsible for them. You had them....you raise them.
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|There are laws and restrictions all over the place that we must comply with. Selling a violent or sexually graphic game to a minor is perverted. There is no reasonable explanation that could justify doing this.
Next you'll be telling me that NAMBLA is a fine organization that should get support from the government.
YUCK!
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|Yes the whole violence-in-games thing is retarded but there is a double standard going on here. I mean is it ok over there to let kids see R-rated movies?
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|the whole movie ratings thing is not a law, and it is strictly voluntary. most places only do it because occasionally parents get mad @ the theatre for letting kids in (and lose business), or because they are disruptive. i personally tell them if they don't want their kids to see an r movie they shouldn't be left there unattended. if people don't want their kids exposed to that stuff then they need to learn to manage their child. and that goes for all forms of media.
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|i'm sorry to take an opposing stance, but hearing 'did she say a bad word' from 8 year old during kill bill 1, i kid you not, was seriously creepy
maybe more enforcement should be made
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|This whole "Violence in videogames, makes our kids go psycho-nutz!!" is very irritating and ridiculous...yes I said it...RIDICULOUS!! Gosh these people, I swear...I've heard real crazier stories about people fighting/killing over real sports events? and I've never heard any stories on TV "oh..umm, he shoot this guys because he saw it on GTA and it was fun and he thought he was going to get points and money for it"...GOD please don't put me in this crazy world again?, yeah...I know I can do it myself thanks I just might!! =) ooh I learned that thought in a videogame!!..whoa!! oh gosh!! videogames are a sin!!..okay I'm done with this comment cuz I'm gone nutz!!
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|Minors don't have free expression rights. Can they vote? Can they drink? Can they smoke? Can they enter chat rooms and forums that often say if you are under 18 you can't access? Can they buy porn mags? If the supreme court is ruling that minors have free expression rights then how is it determined where that line is drawn?
Also "Whyte questioned California's claim that violent video games could cause psychological or other harm to children." - Anybody who argues that 'input' to a brain/body system doesn't affect the output from the same brain/body system (even subconciously) is dead when it comes to self awareness.
Anyone who doesn't realize that feeling the feelings of killing, maiming, sexually assualting things in video games creates neurological pathways in our brain/body systems that progressively ok these behaviours ...(ask any neuro-scientist or hypnotist - yes a wide spectrum of professions are aware of this)... might as well be dead to the world.
What a world of dull minded, self-interested, dis-compassionate excuses for humans I live in.
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|"Anyone who doesn't realize that feeling the feelings of killing, maiming, sexually assualting things in video games creates neurological pathways in our brain/body systems that progressively ok these behaviours"
And then we have a little thing called reality that NO-NO's these behaviors. If a person can't seperate pixels from reality, they are screwed to begin with.
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|"If a person can't seperate pixels from reality, they are screwed to begin with"
The obvious response from me is of course that yes... many people "are screwed to begin with" and inputing violence and any in-humane stimuli is not helping.
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|nor will it make any difference to anyone if they even passed such law.
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|Just goes to show you how it doesn't matter if they're Dem or Rep, the U.S. government is always looking for ways to tell you how to think, what to think, and why you should think the way they want.
Stay out of people's private lives and just provide the things you're supposed to, just like the Constitution says: Provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, ensure the blessings of liberty and freedom, free speech,and the freedom of religion.
Stay out of our bedrooms, stay out of our computers, stay off our phones and televisions, keep your money-grubbing mitts out of our tax dollars, start looking after people's needs at home while keeping your nose out of the rest of the world's business, and most of all, keep your cigars in your mouths!
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|The makers and marketers of the game are the ones telling you what to think and how to think. Don't you think actively engaging in the games affects your thinking? Don't you think the marketing that spends millions to find out how to make you think what they want you to think... affects how you think? You are all so programmed, and you think you're not... it's sad.
"promote the general welfare, ensure the blessings of liberty and freedom" well that's what they are trying to do. Watch. The more people want to push for liberties that cause damage to self and others, the less liberty you will have. An unfortunate paradox that we'll all have to live and learn through.
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|1 for the good guys. Go home to your cheating husband, Hillary, and quit messing with our Freedoms.
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|Good, it all comes down to Freedom of Speech, freedom of expression. :)
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|"The law made it illegal for a retailer to sell a game to a minor that included the "killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being.""
So, wouldn't all a game developer have to do is SAY that those aren't humans? In the game world, they could be anything they want...aliens from a far off planet Xorious IV :P
Too many loopholes.
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|Dungeon Siege!
Watch that blood splatter on those pathetic Krug!
Huh...humans? Humans don't get hurt.
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|You can watch killing, maiming and sexual assaults all day long on TV, why not games?
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|That's it right there. You nailed it.
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|Both or Neither?
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|That's what they do in some other countries; they turn the humans into aliens or zombies.
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|Maybe that's why Dungeon Siege II got a Mature rating. There are some humans you have to destroy (like Valdis and his Dark Wizards).
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|pwned.
Take that Hillary.
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