![]() ![]() In the aftermath of these shootings, victims, commentators, and psychologists alike blamed the graphic violence in the various video games the shooters frequently played. The most notorious occurred in 1999, when 13 people were killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, by two teenage shooters, who then committed suicide. Laws restricting children’s access to violent and sexually explicit video games were enacted after allegations that such games were a factor in the various high school shootings that had gripped the nation’s attention. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, used with permission from the Associated Press) Violent video games came under scrutinyĭuring the late 1990s, video games came under increasing legal assault, both from state regulators and from civil liability lawsuits. ![]() Violent video games and their effects on minors have resulted in Supreme Court cases determining whether video games receive free speech protections. The ratings board of video games is preparing to announce a new category of "E10+" to help fill a hole between games that were previously rated "E" for everyone, which were sometimes too childish for some adolescents, and "T" for teens, which were disturbingly too violent or mature for some parents' tastes. In this photo, Nicholas Patton, 9, plays Luigi's Mansion on his Game Cube video game system at his home in Belmont, Calif., on Tuesday, March 1, 2005. But as video games began experiencing new regulatory pressure, the courts eventually reversed direction. In the 1980s, after the America’s Best decision, other courts followed suit and held that because video games were not designed to communicate or express information, they were not entitled to receive constitutional protection. Not only did video games not inform, but they completely lacked the communicative or informative element required of speech protected by the First Amendment. ![]() 1982), a federal district court likened video games to mechanical entertainment devices, such as pinball machines, and recreational pastimes, such as chess and baseball, consisting of rules and implements. Video games were originally denied constitutional protectionīy contrast, in their early years video games were almost uniformly denied constitutional protection. The Court’s decision also showed a gradual move in American courts to recognize that video games were a medium of expression deserving of free-speech protection. The decision rejected the concept of violence as obscenity, reasoning that the concept of obscenity is relegated to areas of sexual expression. ![]() The Court in Brown invalidated a California law that prohibited the sale or rental of violent video games to minors without a parent present. That suffices to confer First Amendment protection." Entertainment Merchants Ass’n (2011), the Court explained: “ Like the protected books, plays, and movies that preceded them, video games communicate ideas - and even social messages - through many familiar literary devices … and through features distinctive to the medium. Supreme Court has explained that video games are a form of expression entitled to First Amendment protection. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, used with permission from The Associated Press.) The case recognized that video games get free-speech protection. Entertainment Merchants Ass’n (2011), the court said government doesn't have the authority to "restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed" despite complaints that the popular and fast-changing technology allows the young to simulate acts of brutality. Jack Schooner, 16, looks at Grand Theft Auto video game at GameStop in Palo Alto, Calif., Monday, June 27, 2011, the day the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to bar children from buying or renting violent video games. ![]()
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