The First Amendment Strikes Again
On Monday, the Supreme Court handed down a decision declaring that a law California passed was unconstitutional. This law had to with the sale of “violent video games to minors” (Barnes 2011). This law would have been a ban on such sales. Now why would this be?
The First Amendment, of course. “Video games deserve the same constitutional protections as books and movies” (Barnes 2011) and all have free speech protection. A lower court had already decided “California’s law imposing a $1,000 fine on those who sell or rent violent video games to minors violated free-speech rights” (Barnes 2011). That case in question is Brown v. Entertainment Merchants’ Association.
That being said, why is the sale of violent video games such a big deal? Politicians have more to worry about then something as insignificant as video games, right? First off, that should be the parents’ job, and also, I agree with the Supreme Court’s decision.
“This country has no tradition of specially restricting children’s access to depictions of violence” (Brown v. Entertainment Merchants’ Association). If that was so, Tom and Jerry should be scrubbed from the airwaves. The decision also pointed out that “psychological studies purporting to show a connection between exposure to violent video games and harmful effects on children do not prove that such exposure causes minors to act aggressively” (Brown v. Entertainment Merchants’ Association). Of course, kids can act aggressively violent on their own. Ever heard of schoolyard bullying?
Well, Bully for You
Bullying isn’t just a playground issue in elementary schools anymore. After all this time, you would figure that society would have realized it’s much worse and occurs at every stage of youth, even high school and college. I’m not condoning what the Columbine shooters ended up resorting to, but they didn’t hatch up the idea to massacre students and teachers just by playing Doom all day long. They were outsiders, castigated for being so unpopular.
Don’t Hate the Player or the Game
Amongst violent video games though, perhaps the most infamous and the most reviled by critics of video game violence (but loved by the video game critics who actually review the game and offer honest opinions on the game’s merits as a consumer product) is Grand Theft Auto. Consider the unfortunate case of Devin Moore, an 18-year-old who “played Grand Theft Auto day and night for months” (Bradley, 2005) and then “killed three men, two cops among them” (Bradley 2005).
Despite how this sounds, it’s important to note that Moore had “a profoundly troubling upbringing, bouncing back and forth between a broken home and a handful of foster families” (Bradley 2005) A person’s environment does affect their behavior. Violent video games are blamed as triggers for violence in society. Maybe society should step back and reexamine the traumas that could cause kids to lash out this way, and fix the problem rather than blaming the easy scapegoat.
Sources
- Barnes, Robert. “Limits on video games rejected”. The Washington Post. 28 June 2011.
- Bradley, Ed. “Can A Video Game Lead to Murder?” 60 Minutes. CBS News. 2005. Online. Accessed June 30, 2011
- “Brown v. Entertainment Merchants’ Association”. Supreme Court. Cornell University Law School Legal Information Institute. Online. Accessed June 30, 2011.
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