Are video games due unfettered First Amendment protection?
July 13, 2010 — The state of California filed with the U.S. Supreme Court its brief against the video game industry, entering the final stages of a five-year battle to try to ban the sale of violent video games to children.
The opponents of the law have until Sep. 10 to file their briefs; the Supreme Court will hear arguments sometime this fall.
The case centers on the constitutionality of a 2005 California law to ban the sale and rental of violent video games to children. The law, which never actually took effect, has lost two court battles already in federal court and the court of appeals.
Those representing California’s interests point to the fact that laws exist limiting a minor’s access to tobacco, pornography and alcohol and that the state has a duty to protect the welfare of its children.
“California’s law promotes parental authority to restrict unsupervised minors’ ability to consume a narrow category of material in order to protect minors’ physical and psychological welfare, as well as their ethical and moral development,” says the brief filed by California Attorney General Jerry Brown.
The video game industry supporters claim that the law violates its First Amendment right to free speech and that a voluntary ratings system is already in place, making the need for regulation unnecessary.
Follow this story at Video Games Industry Today:
California Video Games news – http://videogames.einnews.com/california/
Located at http://videogames.einnews.com, Video Games Industry Today is a video game news monitoring service from EIN News. Follow us on Twitter @einvideogames
