Monday, June 27, 2011

Good News Kids: The Government Can't Stop you From Buying Grand Theft Auto

I guess the parents now need to exercise some responsibility if they don't want their kids playing violent games.

On a 7-2 vote, the high court upheld a federal appeals court decision to throw out California's ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Sacramento had ruled that the law violated minors' rights under the First Amendment, and the high court agreed.

"No doubt a state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm," said Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion. "But that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed."

Well, the different anti-video game groups can now go into overdrive saying that it was violent video games that caused whatever social ill they want to scapegoat. What is funny is that the ban probably didn't effect kids as much as some people would believe. I mean most minors have played these games due to lax parents or an older sibling or friends buying them the game. It was one of those laws like prohibition that no one actually followed unless they weren't likely to play the games in the first place.

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