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Supreme Court on Tuesday began reviewing the constitutionality of a proposed California law that would make selling violent video games to minors illegal. Breaking it would result in a fine of a thousand dollars per violation. According to NPR, similar laws have been enacted in eight states overall and they have been deemed unconstitutional by federal judges in each instance.
According to court documents, the law wants to “prohibit the sale of violent video games to minors under 18 where a reasonable person would find that the violent content appeals to a deviant or morbid interest of minors, is patently offensive to prevailing community standards as to what is suitable for minors, and causes the game as a whole to lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors.” Several justices strongly argued for prohibiting these games.
Chief Justice John Roberts said it’s reasonable to assume that allowing children to play more violent games may impact their “moral development.” Justice Antonin Scalia noted that egregious violence also exists in Grimm’s fairy tales, and questioned whether movies that depict drinking or smoking would be next to face state-sponsored restrictions. Justice Stephen G. Breyer said “if the law can forbid selling pictures of a ‘naked woman’ to a young teen, it can also forbid the sale of scenes ‘of gratuitous torture of children’ in a video game.”
