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

Think of the children!!

[OrangeTide]

Looks like Judge Posner is thinking of the children.

Re:Think of the children!!

[nelsonal]

Judge Posner is probably one of the best legal minds of the age, it's sad that he wasn't one of the nominees to the Supreme Court.

Re:Think of the children!!

[Tom]

Judge Posner is probably one of the best legal minds of the age, it's sad that he wasn't one of the nominees to the Supreme Court. And don't you ever think that there might be a correlation between those two facts...

Re:Think of the children!!

[Mikkeles]

"'Sex 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 sexual descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it.'"

So why the hypocrisy with respect to pornography and other sexual or erotic descriptions.

Re:Think of the children!!

[justin12345]

Because this guy wasn't on the Supreme Court that ruled the obscenity wasn't protected by the First Amendment.

Thank you very much

[iamacat]

Now just to confirm that it's no more harmful for a teenager to see a nude human body or have a glass of red wine with parents at dinner time.

Re:Thank you very much

[Anonymous Coward]

Yea, they regularly have naked red wine parties, and they turn out just fine!

Re:Yet they keep trying

[Fx.Dr]

It's not as though The Powers That Be don't know and don't care - they most certainly know, but that's not the point. It helps them establish a track record of "thinking of the children", which makes it all the easier to posture on their soapboxes come election time.

Tough Love

[conspirator57]

... "And while you're at it, spank your children and stop reading them politically correct fairy tales. Yes the gingerbread house is made from bad little boys and girls."

http://www.amazon.com/Politically-Correct-Bedtime- Stories-Modern/dp/002542730X

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Jack Thompson......Quixotic!

[eggoeater]

...and the Judge used one of my favorite words, Quixotic,
which is a flat-out perfect description of Jack Thompson:

....a person or an act that is caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals. It also serves to describe an idealism without regard to practicality.

Re:Violent Video Game Law

[MightyMartian]

A game of any kind ought to be harmless fun, but we've reached a point where everything has to be allowed.
There is no need for entertainment to use foul language or blood and gore just for the sake of it.
Same goes for using the name of God or Jesus or lewdness.
This is not escape from realisim, just more of the same.

Well fuck Jesus and God, bring on the tranny porn and show images of Jesus getting shit on. Amen brother, and pass the Bible so I can urinate on it!

Now, it's quite possible I'm going to get modded down, but that's fine, as this is a private site. But neither you, the Reverend Billy Graham or even God Almighty have any right in a free country that honors liberty telling me what I can say, or what movies I can watch or what video games I play. You are perfectly free to not partake of it, and keep it out of the hands of your children, but what you aren't free to do is to shove your standards on other people.

Whoah whoah whoah!

[Greyfox]

OK Some of those I'll give you but Little Red Riding Hood?! I don't recall hearing "My grandma, what a huge wang you have!" That didn't make my cut! I mean pretty much anything with a Prince Charming or some chick kissing a frog, sure, but I think you're really reaching on this one.