Supreme Court Declares Video Games “Protected Speech”
We’ve all seen the big news by now over on the east coast – most notably New York state – allowing gay couples to get legally married. There you go! Now every New Yorker can be miserable. But something a little bit closer to home – and able to be posted here on Ripten – is the U.S. Supreme Courts 7 to 2 vote to overturn a California law that would restrict the sale of computer and video games to minors – declaring these games are protected free speech like any other form of creative expression.
“Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium. The basic principles of freedom of speech . . . do not vary with a new and different communication medium.” Justice Scalia wrote.
What that basically means is that if this law had been passed, it would have made it a crime to sell ultra-violent video games to minors in the State of California, no matter the circumstances. You could have a signed parental note saying little Billy can buy F.E.A.R. 3 – an M rated title – but it still wouldn’t make a difference to California. You broke the law. This law in question has now been ruled to be un-Constitutional in the lower courts, and I’d have to agree.
Like it or not, we’ve been debating this whole issue on if video games’ affect impressionable kids since the late 80′s and 90′s, citing that these crazy demonic boxes we put into our NES gaming consoles bring out the killers, as well as aggressive and hurtful nature in kids. Of course, we all know that an 8 year old kid really shouldn’t get their hands on a violent military shooter like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, no matter how many dogtags he’s collected. That’s common knowledge. But not every kid needs to be prohibited from seeing that. There are some kids out there that live in a magical hippy world that have been brought up faster and in more open-minded households than others. They have matured quicker because of the organic foods and wheatgrass, and are ready for this type of title. The final decision should still be up to the parent’s discretion on whether or not to purchase this game for their child, not the state determining that. You don’t need a California law for this.
Justice Scalia basically threw up the hand to the face when the California side argued that video games were different enough from books and other forms of media to require a First Amendment exception. As Judge Posner observed, all literature is interactive. The better it is, the more interactive it is. Scalia then shot down a state need for a law on this, saying not all parents agree that their kids need protection from violent video games. He later cited studies of the current video game ratings systems and said they have been shown effective enough to work. “Filling the remaining modest gap in concerned-parents’ control can hardly be a compelling state interest.”
So chalk up a win for video games, people (and gay gamers, they get two chalks). We have won our freedom of expression in video games, so please join other gamers and developers in pledging to defend it.
Sign the Gamer’s Pledge via Video Game Voters Network
Up next? We all need to head down to Australia and get them a Mature 18+ rating system in place so they can play Left 4 Dead the way it’s MEANT to be played.
