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California Takes Video Game Violence to Supreme Court

by VR Sreeraman on May 21 2009 2:09 PM

California said Wednesday it will petition the US Supreme Court in a bid to enact a law that would ban the sale or rental of violent video games to people under 18.

A federal appeals court ruled in February that the 2005 law was unconstitutional because it restricted free speech, and said the state had not proved violent video games caused psychological or neurological harm to minors.

However California Attorney General Jerry Brown said Tuesday the state would seek to appeal the decision before the highest US court.

"California's children are exposed everyday to video games that glamorize killing sprees, torture and sexual assault," Brown said in a statement.

"In the face of this brutal and extreme violence, I am petitioning the Supreme Court to allow the state to enforce its reasonable ban on the sale or rental of violent video game sales to children."

If four of the US Supreme Court's nine justices grant the California petition, the court will take up the case and review the lower court's decision to invalidate the law.

The proposed law requires that violent video games are labled with an "18" to prevent their sale or rental to minors, with fines of 1,000 dollars for anyone violating the regulations.

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Brown's petition would ask the court to address the question of whether extremely violent material sold to children could be treated the same as sexually explicit material, the statement said.

Source-AFP
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