US Supreme Court to Hear Case on Video Game Violence
Video Game Violence in US Supreme Court
Following California’s lead almost a dozen more states have jumped on the bandwagon to support legislation that would restrict the sale of violent video games to minors.
In addition to California now Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia have bills in play that would in effect regulate the video game industry, which currently doesn’t have federal regulation per se. There are ESRB ratings (very much like MPAA movie ratings) that warn parents of mature content. The Motion Picture and Music Industries are not regulated by federal government, but those industries mostly act fairly responsible and seem to operate within a range of self-imposed restrictions. If the video game industry can’t tone their mature content down or adhere to some self-regulation then the entertainment software industry in general may never be the same.
The specific California Civil Code at issue is “sections 1746-1746.5 (the Act) prohibit the sale or rental of “violent video games” to minors under 18. The Act defines a “violent video game” as one that depicts “killing, maiming, dismembering, or sexually assaulting an image of a human being” . Of note is the fact that currently mature titles contribute to just under 20% of video game sales.
If different legislation passes in all 50 states than game manufacturer’s could in theory be required to create different versions of their products for different states, which would not be a very efficient or inexpensive way to dealing with the issue.
The California case will soon take center stage in US Supreme court, it does kind of make one wonder what’s next state bans on watching Wile E Coyote and Roadrunner cartoons on Saturday morning?
