Video Games Go to Supreme Court
The video games industry will file a brief to the United States Supreme Court today against a California law that seeks to ban the sale of violent video games to minors.
In 2005, Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger signed a state law that would see video games regulated more harshly than violent movies, literature, or lyrics. This law is based on the premise that video game violence damages children, and it calls for video games to be regulated like pornography.
California attorney general and gubernatorial hopeful Jerry Brown defended the law, writing "There is no sound basis in logic or policy for treating offensively violent, harmful material with no redeeming value for children any different than sexually explicit material."
According to the LA Times, legal scholars are watching the case, because the Supreme Court's decision could open the door to harsher regulations for those other forms of media.
Of course, as all video gamers know, the video game industry voluntarily rates and regulates the sales of its games, with a full rating system. And from what we understand, the research that underpins the law doesn't actually prove that video game violence harms children to any greater extent than any other type of violent media.
We'll find out what the court thinks sometime after this case's November 2 hearing.
Also, the one who got this law started in the California legislature? Democrat Leland Yee.