The Law's Point of View on Video Game Violence

      When it comes to the law's view of video games it is split down at the midde. This means anyone working in law, such as district attorneys, lawyers, and judges. Many lawyers have tried to push blame on video games for the violence that has been afflicted in communities. Games such as Grand Theft Auto, Doom, and Mortal Kombat are some examples of the games who have received criticism and started controversies, and the reason for this is their violent content, religious sacrilege, and criminal activity. The law's view of this is that all of it is glorifying these acts that the player does in the game, and that it is glorifying satanism, murder, and criminals. 

     However, when it come to the court cases every one of them ruled out video games as a motive for the crimes that have been comitted since court cases sometimes have to be unbiased when it comes to crimes.There are examples of some crime scenes that are investigated where there is a connection to video games because the perpetrator plays them, but the motive is revealed to be something completely different, and there are other causes that are discovered. For example there was a story 10 years ago of a young boy who shot his grandmother in the head with a gun. In the home Grand Theft Auto IV was on the TV, and there was a discussion amongst journalists, senators, and politicians on whether or not video games were the cause of violence in teens. What people fail to acknowledge is the recklessness of the situation and the care of the child such as the gun that is laying around near a child, the absent parents, and the grandmother who was taking care of him on her own. 

     Most of these violent video games were mostly new around the 80's and 90's, video games were around since the 70's, but they were taking new forms around these time periods since most of the game developers wanted to innovate. Since video games were not big enough at the time parents were unaware of the violent and sexual content, and the video game looks fine on the front cover, so they bought it since their child liked it. Over time parents started to catch on, and the parents were sending in complaints to the court. The court decided to implement a rating system like they do with movies and TV shows, so that parents would know the content in the video game, and make sure their child is protected from the content. Violent and sexual content have been known to have a bad effect on the minds of children, so they developed rating such as (E) which means it is rated for eveyone, and (AO) which is adults only. 

     Lawmakers and spokespeople have tried putting blame on video games for the violence that plagues their communities, but when it comes to the analysis and investigation it is clear that the killers who are involved in shootings and murder are only admirers of the game, and play it in their free time. They never are the motive behind the killer, or shooter which is why the law's view of video games is split down the middle. the court is able to be unbiased about these cases, but the lawmakers' personal opinions are that video games are a bad influence on children, and lead to real life violence. 

Works Cited 

     A Timeline of Video Game Controversies. National Coalition Against Censorship. 

         https://ncac.org/resource/a-timeline-of-video-game-controversies

     Price, Anna. To Play or Not to Play: Video Game Ratings and the Law. Library Of Congress Blogs. 

       https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2023/09/to-play-or-not-to-play-video-game-ratings-and-the-law/#:~:text=Video%20Game%20Case%20Law&text=This%20case%20arose%20in%202005,prohibited%20under%20the%20First%20Amendment.

     Russell, Lauren. Police: 8-year-old shoots, kills elderly caregiver after playing video game. CNN, August 26, 2013. 

      https://www.cnn.com/2013/08/25/us/louisiana-boy-kills-grandmother/index.html

     Video Game Law. Justia. 

       https://www.justia.com/entertainment-law/video-game-law/


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