It's For the Children™

Last year, the courts struck down a California law banning the sale of "violent" video games to kids under 17 and fining anybody who sold them the games $1,000. Well, the Nanny lawyers are back at it again, trying to get the ruling overturned:

The Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association, which represents game makers, has claimed that in addition to being unconstitutional, the bill is impractical.

"The same argument has been made again and again throughout the history of the country about books, about movies, about comic books and now about video games," said Jennifer Mercurio, director of government affairs for a national group that represents "America's gamers." "The way this law is drafted comes up against hundreds of years of First Amendment issues."

But Deputy Attorney General Zackery Morazzini, representing the Schwarzenegger administration, argues in a court filiung that the mere ratings don't do enough.

"It defies logic to suggest that our founding fathers intended to adopt a First Amendment that would guarantee children the right to purchase a video game wherein the player is rewarded for interactively causing a character to take out a shovel and bash the head of an image of a human being," he wrote in the court brief.

Invoking the framers of the Constitution in arguing for a law to restrict speech rights? I don't know if this Morazzini guy is a good law-talkin' guy, but the man's got balls.

Posted by: Sean M. at 01:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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