Parents Pushing Politicians Stronger Censorship on Video Games

Throughout the time violent video games have been out, there have been many attempts to set bars by state lawmakers to prevent minors from buying violent video games at a young age. From Mortal Kombat to GTA, the range of violent video games out there are plenty. While there are plenty of minor laws, parents have been pushing to get violent video games to get banned or at least reduce the violence shown in video games. 

According to the article "Video Games and Children & First Amendment Law" published by Justia, it writes that the state of California had law try to regulate the sale or rental of violent video games to children. Writing for the majority however, Justice Antonin Scalia had ruled that video games qualify for full First Amendment protection which is similar to books, movies, films, and plays. Unfortunately for the parents, the law makers claim that there are no long standing traditions of restricting children's access to depictions of violence. The strict scrutiny was the appropriate standard of review and the court found that the law failed to meet the standards of the test. Although California failed to ban the sale of violent video games, this was not the first time they had tried to do so. 

In 2005, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill banning the sale of violent video games to minors. Unfortunately for him, the Supreme Court ruled the bill as unconstitutional in a 7-2 decision. Before the bill could go into constitution, the Reporters Committee in their article wrote that the Video Software Dealers Association and the Entertainment Merchants Association had challenged the law in federal court. While a U.S. district judge granted the trade groups' request to join reinforcement of the law, which concludes the prohibition on sales and rentals to minors violates the First Amendment. The U.S. Court appeals of Appeals in San Francisco (also known as the Ninth Circuit) affirmed the ruling. It concluded that the labeling requirement itself was unconstitutional. It compelled evidence that video game sellers, who people on the opposing side believed that they were sending messages on their violent video games which were seen to be controversial and damaging to society, was found on the products to be not entirely true. Thus, is why the law was ruled as unconstitutional. 

Sources: 
https://www.rcfp.org/journals/regulation-violent-video-games/ 

https://www.justia.com/child-safety/online-safety/video-games-and-children/#:~:text=In%202011%2C%20the%20U.S.%20Supreme,books%2C%20plays%2C%20and%20films. 

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