Fed. Appeals Court Rejects California Game Law

Fed. Appeals Court Rejects California Game Law

Saturday, February 21, 2009 - by Shawn Oliver
We feel like we've been here before, and in fact, we have. Sort of, at least. The same hotly debated video game law in California has come to the forefront of attention once more, with a federal appeals court striking down the law that sought to bar minors from purchasing or renting games that were deemed too violent. The 9th United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the original 2005 law "violates minors' rights under the Constitution's First and 14th amendments." The three judge panel's unanimous ruling upholds an earlier ruling in the United States District Court.

If it would have passed, the law would have prohibited the rental or sale of "violent" (who determines that, we wonder?) video games to anyone under 18. Furthermore, it would have created "strict labeling requirements for video game manufacturers." Judge Consuelo Callahan stated that there were simply better and less restrictive ways to protect minors from violent games, most notably, to give parents the ability to block certain rated titles on game consoles. The decision makes a strong stand to say that the government doesn't feel that it should be determining what a minor can or cannot handle in terms of violence within games, and we must say that we completely agree with that notion.

Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat and child psychologist from San Francisco, had this to say on the matter: "We need to help empower parents with the ultimate decision over whether or not their children play in a world of violence and murder." We concur on all points. If the government were allowed to determine a threshold of acceptable violence here, what else could it begin to regulate? We shutter at the mere thought of that.
Via: Yahoo! / AP | News Archive | Tags: Video Games, games, California, Legal, Violence
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Comments

By Super Dave on Feb 21, 2009

Without actually commenting on the video game law, I would like to point out that the 9th Circuit Court is the most liberal court in the land. Unfortunately (IMO), California is under it's jurisdiction. This is an excerpt ripped from Wikipedia:

Controversy

Most criticism of the Ninth Circuit can be summarized by the following two claims: the Ninth Circuit is politically liberal and out of step with Supreme Court precedent, and the large size of the court prevents it from maintaining a coherent body of case law.

By Dave_HH on Feb 22, 2009

Not surprising at all, Dave. Let's make laws so parents don't have to set limits. Yeah, that'll help.

By mentaldisorder on Feb 23, 2009

But don't stores check for id?  I get ided everytime I buy an M rated game and I'm 20.  All the stores say it's policy.  I don't believe you can rent anything unless you have a credit card and If you do get a joint account with your parents, they still have to say to take off the restriction so you can rent the r movies and m rated games.

By Jeremy on Feb 23, 2009

I bought Crysis Warhead a few weeks back at a mall video game store. When checking out, the clerk looked at me and said, "Just to warn you, this game contains violence ... [blah blah, don't remember." I was rather confused, I just looked at her and said, "Uh, yea. That's kinda why I'm buying it."

Didn't get ID'd though.

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