If you haven’t been keeping up, video-games have constantly been under a lot of heat and for the past six years Californian law makers have been lobbying to have the sale of mature title video-games deemed a criminal act with a 1,000 dollar fine tacked on. At first this seems alright, but it would be the only medium to do so. There is no criminalization for sales of mature books, movies, or music to minors, so why are video games being picked on?
Another example would be that it is not illegal for a movie theater to sell a 14-year-old a ticket to see Kill Bill, but it is simply against their policy to do so. Comparitively, it isn’t illegal for a store to sell a mature title to a youngster, it is simply against their policy.
These cases have consistently been deemed as a violation of free speech and it finally made its way to the supreme court, where it was voted seven to two as a violation of free speech. End of argument (for now, I’m sure).
The supreme court stated “Like the protected books, plays, and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas—and even social messages—through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot, and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player’s interaction with the virtual world).”
The supreme court went so far as to call out lawmakers for pushing hidden agendas by saying, “Psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively. Any demonstrated effects are both small and indistinguishable from effects produced by other media. Since California has declined to restrict those other media, e.g., Saturday morning cartoons, its video-game regulation is wildly underinclusive, raising serious doubts about whether the State is pursuing the interest it invokes or is instead disfavoring a particular speaker or viewpoint.”
Even a strange comparison between Mortal Kombat and The Divine Comedy was brought into play, “Reading Dante is unquestionably more cultured and intellectually edifying than playing Mortal Kombat. But these cultural and intellectual differences are not constitutional ones. Crudely violent video games, tawdry TV shows, and cheap novels and magazines are no less forms of speech than The Divine Comedy … Even if we can see in them “nothing of any possible value to society … they are as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature.”
This is a landmark victory for gamers everywhere, and although common sense said that we were going to win this case, you never know.
Video games are important art too
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I’m torn on this issue. Certainly I want to play what I want without censorship being applied, but I don’t think that a child should have the ability to go purchase an M-rated game without a parent’s consent. Instead of lobbying to get video games criminalized and celebrating when that fails, in my opinion the focus should be on leveling the playing field, as it were. I feel that it *should* be punishable to irresponsibly expose children to stuff they shouldn’t be exposed to… not just in video games, but in all forms of media.
You bring up a good point. The judge issuing the verdict touched upon that, bringing up how they were singling out video-games as opposed to other mediums. A case on all the mediums at once would be a very large case indeed.
I agree, there should be some sort of punishment involved for the ignorance of the parents. As a culture we all love blood and gore, I mean, think about it…It’s some sort of “sick” entertainment, but that’s neither here nor there. That’s really not the point, but the point is that this is a great triumph, but at the same time I think the focus should be more on the parents and their control. If you leave out a porno magazine and little Johnny finds it, you can’t exactly get all upset at Playboy.
Excellent point, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s up to the parents to raise their children. If my son can handle something before the rating on the box says he can, then *I’ll* get it for him and *I’ll* supervise it. If he tried to sneak around and get it behind my back… well, that’s a different story entirely, and I wouldn’t be upset with the producers of the product, I’d be upset with the store he got it from.
All good points, and I am glad our Supreme Court has seen logic and reason (well, seven of them at least). What I am afraid of California doing is now that they lost their case on banning the sale of M- and AO-rated games, they could file another suit in an attempt to make mature-themed video games a controlled substance in the same way tobacco, firearms and alcohol are, and then making the sale of said video games to minors a felony. This is California we’re talking about, and the Land of Fruits and Nuts is indeed a persistent one…
Well I know when I was growing up the “bad” or “scary” movies I watched with my parents. They aren’t exactly the world’s best parents but they did teach me a few things…Don’t emulate what you see in movies, (of course that was a learning experience that they gladly watched…it is not possible to use an umbrella to float down when jumping off a roof) they taught me if I get in a fight and get my ass kicked it’s my fault, I learned how to fight back. That’s what saddens me about parents now, as opposed to when I was a kid. It was totally safe for me to ride around my block, chase lightning bugs around, all the fun things we did. Now everything will either give you cancer, or a lawsuit.
I feel that as a parent you must decide what is appropriate for your children. They are all different and some are more sensitive than others. I am not personally a fan of the violent video games. I do not find that they are any more disturbing than a movie or even a book. Books can be more intense than any other media. A book uses the readers own personal idea of what is most frighting. A book leaves open areas to be filled in with the readers imagination. People and places that are familiar to the reader can become part of the story. If all parents would pay attention to what their children are playing then self regulation would be enough. We need our parents to be more involved with raising their children.
I totally agree about the parents being the real issue here. I work at target and have sold mature and violent games to parents of kids under ten. When I inform them of the nature of the games 8 times out of 10 they don’t care. Their just trying to get them to stop whining instead of doing some parenting. Parents need to take more responsibility in their children’s lives. At target we require people to be 18 to purchase all mature games. I also know the majority of stores have the same policy and we didn’t need a law to do it.
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