Court of Appeals Overturns Indiana Video Game Ordinance

hayfever writes: "Catch the scoop. The Indianapolis Star is reporting here that the US 7th Circuit Court of appeals has overturned the Indianapolis ordinance banning violent video games from arcades (see previous Slashdot article here)." Findlaw has the decision, and there are some really good lines in there: "To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it." Update: 03/24 10 AM EST by J : The contrast is striking. The same day, our new Attorney General John Ashcroft released a statement: "Ashcroft on school shootings: Video games are part of the problem." Gun control? He prefers thought control: "We have to exhibit responsibility in other ways, so that the culture inhibits or restrains this impulse."

Comments

Good start

[KurdtX]

Now maybe they can start overturning other limited-by-age laws, like the drinking age. I don't know anyone who has wanted to drink before they were 21 who has not been able to get their hands on alcohol. I've also seen many people make the decision when attending clubs or parties where they can't get alcohol (since they're getting intoxicated illegally anyway) to go for harder drugs... because they last the whole night without having to drink yourself close to death at the start of the night. At my school we have a school-wide party early in the year and then again at the end (on the last day of classes) and a lot of the alcohol problems are early on due to people trying to come drunk enough to make their buzz last the entire time, and overestimating. And one line I hear constantly from people who really are on the verge of poisoning themselves is they don't want medical help because they don't want to be caught. Fortunately my school has a (student) medical service that doesn't report to the police for those types of cases, but many places don't, and I worry.

And for those of you who might think "kids" aren't responsible enough to handle alcohol, maybe they aren't. However, artificially imposing that only adults are responsible enough to drink alcohol just makes kids who want to grow up faster (blame the media) more prone to drink, so they fit the adult image that they present. I could continue, but I'm really trying not to troll.

Kurdt

The Judge Is Friendly With His Thesaurus

[neoshroom]

"an amusement machine that predominantly appeals to minors' morbid interest in violence or minors' prurient interest in sex, is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for persons under the age of eighteen (18) years, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value as a whole for persons under..."

All I can say is wow. All that just to mean "video game." I suggest we start using the above statement in our everyday speach.
Something like:

"Hey Kevin, care to pop out the amusement machine that predominantly appeals to minors' morbid interest in violence or minors' prurient interest in sex, is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable material for persons under the age of eighteen (18) years, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value and play some Final Fantasy on it?"