US Supreme Court and upcoming Video Game decision

[Charles]

Movie makers, actors, comic book authors, and writers all rallied around the video game industry Friday, urging the Supreme Court to uphold the unconstitutionality of a California law that would ban the sale of violent video games to minors.

Read all about it here.

What do you think about this?

[EAllen]

The ESRB should be enough.

Beyond that, we go into Wertham territory. More shocking than the games themselves is our reluctance to admit that kids, just by going onto their favorite websites or by following a link on Twitter or Facebook, can be exposed to material far more objectionable than what's currently being subjected to a Supreme Court ruling.

[jeffnevins]

That image at the top of the article- wow.
Violence like that seems so over-the-top to me.

I guess games should be treated like movies.

As an indie game artist/level designer,
Castle Crashers seems about as much as a minor needs to see IMHO.

[SNAKEBITE]

I'm mostly offended by the poor quality of the art in this article..

[paburrows]

As a Father I don't have a problem with the ban, They card you in R rated movies they should card you with Mature rated games.

[EAllen]

They should, paburrows. But we all know that oft-told story about minors manning the cash registers, right?

Kids usually don't card other kids. Every time I go into a Gamestop, or a Toys 'R Us there's some sneer-faced college student snarkily smirking at me. Looking at him, I just know, underage or not, that if I walked up with the M-rated God of War trilogy set I'd have no prob cashing out.

I've been seeing R-rated films in theaters since age 14. A few times, I walked up to the window and flashed my ID and it clearly proved I was underage--and a joke or two about the MPAA with the theater cashier later, I was still allowed in.

[Glen Moyes]

I've always been carded for buying M-rated games. In my experience video games are treated like movies, self-imposed rating system and all. And I don't think that should change.

Speaking of underage kids watching R-rated movies, I think that's the reason why most movie theaters are set up the way they are. They card you when you buy the ticket, but once you get inside there's no one stopping you from walking into another movie theater. I've never been asked to see my ticket once inside of a theater to make sure that I'm not seeing a movie that I wasn't supposed to, even to check to see if I sneaked in for an extra free movie. So even though they can say they card kids, kids can still buy a ticket for one movie and see a different one. For them it's good business to not turn away any customers.

[EAllen]

Another example, Glen, of how the ratings system can be gamed.

It exists as the facade of an effort to "protect" kids, even as kids are finding ingenious and not-so-ingenious ways of getting around it.

And as for making purchases online, despite the technologies that exist as safeguards against the sale of games to underage customers, kids are having an even easier time finding ways around those walls too.

Communication with kids is key.