Censorship issues regarding video games tend to be based on concerns that minors will be harmed by exposure to video games with violent speech and images. Many parents and community watchdogs fear that children who frequent the make-believe world of video games will replicate the games’ violence in the real world. Unlike the case with obscene material however, the U.S. Supreme Court has never carved out a First Amendment exception for violent speech and images. Instead, the Court has affirmed that violent content is protected by the First Amendment, regardless of its social worth because “the line between the transmission of ideas and mere entertainment is much too elusive for this Court to draw.”

Sexual and violent content in video games is reflected in ratings done by the Entertainment Software Rating Association, an independent group. The ratings are intended to give consumers information about content and degree of maturity of intended users. However, state and local legislators have seized on these ratings to propose restricting sales of some games to minors. In general, these efforts have been unsuccessful, but they have often generated years of litigation.

August 15, 2007 - California Judge Rejects Video Game Law That Restricted Minors' Access to Violent Games
SACRAMENTO, CA- The August 6 decision by U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte striking down California's video game censorship law was the ninth such ruling by a federal court in the past six years. Yet state and local legislators continue to press for laws restricting minors' access to violent games. Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, New York, North Carolina, and Utah are currently considering legislation restricting minors' access to games with violent content. The nine states or localities whose laws have been struck down include Indianapolis, St. Louis, Michigan, Washington, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Oklahoma.

September 2006- "The Great Divide," Censorship and Violent Video Games
NATIONAL- An article by an international law firm sheds some light on the vast differences between the way the U.K. and the U.S. respond to violence in video games — and sets off a lively discussion between gamers on the rating system, self-censorship, and the dubious correlation between "antisocial behavior" and exposure to violence.

June 3, 2003- Court Strikes Down St. Louis Law Banning Sales of Violent Video Games
ST LOUIS, MO- The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional a St. Louis ordinance prohibiting sales of video games with graphically violent content to minors without parental consent. In enjoining enforcement of the ordinance, the court said that the First Amendment protects entertainment as well as political or ideological speech. The case is Interactive Digital Software Association v. St. Louis County.

August 11, 2000 - Court Puts Hold on Law Restricting Minors' Access to Violent Video Games
INDIANAPOLIS, IN- An Indianapolis city ordinance restricting minors' access to video arcade games containing "graphic violence" has been put on hold by a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit, to which the arcade industry appealed following denial of injunctive relief by a district court judge. Marjorie Heins, Director of the Free Expression Policy Project, filed a brief amici curiae on behalf of communications and media scholars. The scholars argue that social science studies have not established that violent entertainment causes harmful effects and that censorship focuses on the wrong solutions, damages speech that serves culturally important functions for some youths, and ignores the real causes of violence.

» "Why Nine Court Defeats Haven't Stopped States From Trying to Restrict 'Violent' Video Games" by Marjorie Heins
The August 6 decision by U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte striking down California's video game censorship law was the ninth such ruling by a federal court in the past six years. Yet state and local legislators continue to press for laws restricting minors' access to violent games.Why do lawmakers continue to press for censorship of video games despite the clear unconstitutionality of the enterprise?

» Testimony of NCAC Executive Director Before Task Force on Youth Violence and the Entertainment Industry Joan E. Bertin, Executive Director of the NCAC, delivered this testimony before the Task Force on Youth Violence and the Entertainment Industry on October 6, 1999.
Related: » Summary of Joan E. Bertin's Testimony

» Political Candidates Seek to Broaden Their Appeal, Picking Fantasy Violence as Their Target Vice-President Gore, Senator Joseph Lieberman, and Lynne Cheney, blamed Hollywood, popular music and video-games for corrupting youth, at hearings on a Federal Trade Commission report chaired by Senator John McCain.

» Violent Video Game Players Mysteriously Avoid Killing Selves, Others Maybe the next time a social scientist or politician is interested in making pronouncements about the effects of violent video games, they should actually check out the players.