The U.S. Supreme Court today determined that it will rule on the constitutionally of a California law that bans the sale of violent video games to minors. The Court will most likely hear the case this fall.
California originally passed the anti-gaming law in 2005 by arguing that the state should be able to prohibit the sale of violent games to minors in the same way they restrict the sale of sexual material. California argued that violent games harm children psychologically and make them more violent, antisocial or aggressive.
The Entertainment Software Association and another industry trade group challenged the law in court by characterizing games as a form of artistic expression protected by the First Amendment, and pointed out that the industry already regulates itself in the form of the ESRB Lower courts agreed with the game industry.
"None of the research establishes or suggests a causal link between minors playing violent video games and actual psychological or neurological harm, and inferences to that effect would not be reasonable," Judge Consuelo Callahan said in the 9th Circuit ruling.
California appealed the 9th Circuit ruling, and now the matter will move on to the big, legal show: The Supreme Court.
The lower courts accepted arguments that California failed to show sufficient evidence that games are harmful to minors. That, combined with the guarantee of free expression the first amendment provides, seems to me to be pretty strong evidence that the law will be ruled unconstitutional...but I'm no Supreme Court Justice. We shall see when this big case goes down in the fall.
By Stephen Johnson
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