The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a proposed California law that would have banned the sale of violent video games to minors.
In a 7-2 ruling, both liberal and conservative justices agreed that the video games qualify for First Amendment protections.
"Like the protected books, plays, and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas-and even social messages-through many familiar literary devices (such as characters, dialogue, plot, and music) and through features distinctive to the medium (such as the player's interaction with the virtual world)," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the court's majority opinion (PDF).
Violent video games for children are valuable to the right-wing agenda. They want those kids in the right frame of mind when they reach military age and want to kill for real in The Endless War For Profit.
SCOTUS may revisit this when some game company comes out with a first-person shooter graphically and gleefully depicting the killing of wingnuts and Supreme Court Justices.
4 comments:
It appears that with this ruling, the movie rating system that contains R and NC-17 is a goner. The situations (video games and movies/videos) are quite similar. I suspect, however, that the same group cheering violence will not be as happy about sexual situations. Remember the uproar concerning Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction?
Yes, a 'wardrobe malfunction' that barely happened if it did at all. I watched that clip hundreds of times - just to see what all the fuss was about, you understand - and never saw it.
Personally, I'd rather kids saw a boob or bush every now and then instead of gratuitous violence.
Violence fills the, er, hole, you should pardon the pun, left by sexual repression.
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