Most Laws Attempting Limits of Violent Videogames Fail

circletimessquare writes "Good news for common sense: the New York Times examines the track record of state laws attempting to put additional limits on violent videogames, and finds that the courts have struck almost all of them down as unconstitutional. Especially notable is this gem of a quote, from Judge Richard A. Posner: 'Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low ... It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware. 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.'"

Comments

Re:Thank you very much

[Pendersempai]

But what about sex? I'm not talking love, I'm talking pure, lustful, sex. What about double, or even triple penetration? What about people having sex with animals? We're all just animals anyway, right? And so what if that woman wants a combined three feet of throbbing man love in her? I mean, she's got that Right, to choose to do that, hasn't she? How about gay sex?

Oh yeah, triple-penetration horse sex is bad but god save us from the gay sex!

Fuck you, bigot.

Am I the only one ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Am I the only one who sees violent video games as a completely different animal that the occasional bit of violent imagery?

Violent fairy tales, cartoons, or slasher movies are non-participatory activities. The mind absorbs lessons on some levels during passive viewing, but when you add a dimension of active participation it's a whole new ballgame. Modern video games are graphically rich, have reward systems, and are designed - from the ground up - to be highly addictive activities that keep the mind engaged on many levels. They are immersive. They compel the gamer to become better, more effective, at completing the game's objectives. If those objectives are relentlessly violent, they what you have on your hands is a simulator that's explicitly designed to strengthen violent antisocial tendencies in the playing audience.

And before I get modded down into oblivion I'd like to ask one simple question:

If the North Korean government, or the Taliban, were using sophisticated computer training simulations to brainwash an army of a hundred-thousand children in order to create thoughtless killing machines, would you figure it's all cool?