Federal appellate court strikes down state ban on sales of M-rated games to kids
http://www.startribune.com/local/16749351.html
Minnesota may not enforce a law restricting the sale or rental of "adults only" or "mature" video games to minors, according to an opinion issued Monday by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.A three-judge panel said the court previously has held that violent video games are protected free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution. For that reason, the law can only be upheld if it is proven "necessary to serve a compelling state interest and ... is narrowly tailored to achieve that end," the panel ruled.
The Entertainment Software and Entertainment Merchants associations sued Minnesota in federal court in 2006 seeking to prevent enforcement of the law and have it declared unconstitutional.
The state introduced evidence attempting to show a causal connection between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children.
But Chief U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum ruled in July 2006 that violent video games were protected speech, even for children. He found the state failed to prove its claim that playing violent video games caused lasting harm to the psychological well-being of minors.
Rosenbaum also faulted the state for failing to address other forms of violence in the media. And he held that the state's dependence on a voluntary rating board to determine which games should be restricted was unconstitutional because it did not permit immediate judicial supervision of the ratings.
Rosenbaum said a requirement that stores post notices about the law was a "state-compelled false statement that unconstitutionally required the expression of an unenforceable law."
Judge Roger L. Wollman of Sioux Falls, S.D., wrote the opinion for the appeals court, which included Judges Lavenski R. Smith of Little Rock, Ark., and Duane Benton of Kansas City, Mo.
"All that time you waste dating and having sex could be better spent scouring the web for new game developer press releases." - Quintin_Stone
So wait, it isn't a federal law to prohibit the sale of M and AO rated games to minors? That kind of makes the ESRB ratings system a paper tiger.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train." - Robert Lowell
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Quick, someone tell Boston.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:
I am guessing it is a voluntary system like the motion picture ratings system. which was put into place so that a more restrictive government-run-system would not be.
"All that time you waste dating and having sex could be better spent scouring the web for new game developer press releases." - Quintin_Stone
Huh, you learn something new every day. That makes the fact that I don't get carded for cigarettes anymore but I still do for games all the more comical.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train." - Robert Lowell
"Boy exchange is a fun pain in the ass." - LiquidMantis
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Nice.
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Noooo way. Don't know where you got that idea.
It's not a "paper tiger," either. The moment it gives a game an AO rating, it pretty much condemns the game to failure if the developers don't modify it to reduce the rating. Which is actually a major problem. The ESRB aren't meant to be enforcers. They're supposed to be an "objective" (not sure how that's even possible) observer of the game's content, and then provide a basic guideline, just like the MPAA (which has it's own condemnation rating, NC-17). Both systems are broken and have taken liberties with their power in those ratings in the past. Anything under AO (or NC-17) is usually largely ignored as the norm, however. Unless, of course, the Mature rating includes sexual content, as Fox News has demonstrated with Mass Effect.
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This got me thinking. If I go back through my memory of the most shocking, horrifying, graphic images I've ever seen, in any media, they're almost universally from movies. Alien, Ghost Story, Hell Raiser, if I'm warped, watching these movies is what did it, not playing Doom. I suppose it could be a generational thing, as computer graphics just weren't of equal quality with movies during my teenage years, but my gut says that's not it.
Clearly we need law banning any teenager, accompanied or not, from R-rated movies.
"All that time you waste dating and having sex could be better spent scouring the web for new game developer press releases." - Quintin_Stone
You're right, it was kind of a spur of the moment post at the time and I didn't think it through. Considering how Wal Mart will not sell AO rated games and Microsoft will not approve AO rated games for its console it is the kiss of death. Movie wise I think the MPAA is losing some of it's power because of the booming DVD market where the major motion picture companies are releasing hordes of unrated movies with better profit margins.
How about the Governor of California railing against violent video games when he himself made a fortune starring in movies with some of the highest body counts on record? One movie in particular that stands out is Conan, where he dismembers countless numbers of people and beheads James Earl Jones in the finale.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train." - Robert Lowell
"Boy exchange is a fun pain in the ass." - LiquidMantis
Xbox Live - Trainwreck GWJ
That still won't solve the problem. We should just ban the transition of kids becoming teenagers period!
Decisions are just decisions, there are neither "good" or "bad"
LobsterMobster wrote:
How many more states are going to throw taxpayers' money on the bonfire of struck down "games to minors" laws?
Didn't Louisiana just do this? Along with four or five other states?
Idiots ...
*Legion* recognizing greatness wrote:
As many as it takes to make it look like the politicians care about our children and in turn get votes.
Jadawin wrote:
If anybody cared to look, the photo for that headline in the "Violent Video Game" article is....
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God, I hope my kids don't play that game, who knows what'll happen
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kaostheory wrote: