Video games have become increasingly graphic & violent, some with sexual content.
The Supreme Court just granted First Amendment protection for kids to access video games rated "M Mature 17+" & above.
On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled States cannot ban the sale or rental of ultraviolent video games to children.
They ruled that such limits are a violation fo young people;s First Amendment rightd & are leaving it up to parents & the multi billion dollar gaming industry to decide what kids can buy.
By so ruling, it thre out the 2005 California law covering games sold or rented to those under 18, caling it an unconstitutional violation of free-speech rights.
Humpty Dumpty did fall & crack up. (Some say he was pushed!)
But even with Eeny Meeny Miny Moe, if he hollered, he was let go.
Fairy Tales are not blood soaked violence feasts, that the video games are.
Justice Breyer was the voice of reason:
"What sense does it make to forbid selling to a 13 year old, to buy a magazine with an image of a nude woman, while protecting the sale to that 13 year old of an interactive video game in which he actively, but virtually, binds & gags the woman, then tortures and kills her?"
It makes no sense to legally block children's access to pornography, yet allow them to buy or rent brutally violent video games."
• The Jonesboro, Arkansas school shooting in 1998, where 2 kids , 11 & 13 gunned down 15 people & killed 5.
The parents of one of the shooters, was at a video arcade a week after the shootings, their younger child playing a game that involved shooting a gun.
• Kip Kinkel ,the Springfield Oregon student shooter. Shot 23 students, 2 died & killed both his parents.
Later said he liked to play violent video games. Was also diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic.
• The Columbine High School student shooters- 34 casualties, 15 dead. Not only did these kids play violent video games, they were able to amass & alter weapons. They were "spurred by images of violence, to act out their anger in a violent way. The two Colorado teenagers who killed 12 students and a teacher, then themselves, at Columbine High School in 1999 spent endless hours blasting opponents in violent video games. Millions of children and adolescents who will never touch an actual firearm continue to do the same.
If we watch shows that show blood death & violence, news that covers war stories, then have "games" that involve serious violence, we create a saturation level where violence becomes casual, accepted, entertainment & a game.
I guess the Supreme court stopped short of advising that the violent games can be purchased at
Wal Mart, where last week, they ruled it is OK for women to make lower wages & are not entitled to a Class Action Lawsuit against gender pay discrimination.
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