VSDA Hails Court Rule Against Restricting Video Game Access

Restricting minors' access to video games was ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court in Missouri on June 3, and the Video Software Dealers Association is praising the ruling.

"(The) ruling is a milestone in First Amendment law," said VSDA president Bo Andersen of the decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in striking down a St. Louis ordinance. "The court recognized that the appropriate response to concerns about violence in entertainment is parental control, not government censorship."

Andersen emphasized his industry has a role to play in helping parents make sure their children keep away from what the parents consider inappropriate material, without the government doing the job for the parents. He added that video stores have game ratings education and voluntary enforcement programs to help parents with that job.

He noted that video stores have effective video game ratings education and voluntary enforcement programs in place to help parents exercise control over the movies and video games their children watch and play.

St. Louis County had made it a misdemeanor to "knowingly sell or rent" a minor a "harmful" video game meeting "the legal standard" for obscenity to minors, and which also contained graphic violence or strong sexual content. The appeals court sided with VSDA, the Interactive Digital Software Association, and others who sued on First Amendment grounds.

A lower court ruled video games are not under First Amendment protection and that St. Louis County had a compelling interest to keep minors from violent or sexual games. But the 8th Circuit Court held that depictions of violence are not obscene and that asserting violent video games to be hazardous to mental health "(is) simply unsupported in the record," adding the government cannot quash speech by claiming parental authority.