Late last week U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kennelly ruled that Illinois’ newly passed restrictions barring the sales and rental of violent and sexually explicit video gamed to minor were unconstitutional, and barred the state from enforcing the laws. Judge Kennelly commented in his ruling that the laws were an undue restriction on free speech—”the public itself as an interest in ensuring that the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights are protected to ensure the availability of various forms of expression, including video games, to the broader society”—and that state officials were “nowhere near” demonstrating the laws’ constitutionality. The judge also noted the state had presented no evidence playing violent games caused aggressive thoughts or behavior, and that the laws’ definition of “sexually explicit” was unconstitutionally vague.
Illinois’s Democratic governor Rob Blagojevich vowed to appeal the ruling, arguing children should not be able to access “excessively” violent and sexually explicit video games without their parents’ permission.
Judge Kennelly’s ruling is widely seen as a reaffirming victory for the Entertainment Software Association and the video game industry, which has successfully challenged similar laws in other locales in First Amendment grounds, most recently in Michigan. However,the idea of regulating minors’ access to video games is gaining political momentum, with California recently passing a similar ban on violent games (which, in turn, is being challenged by the ESA and others).
Both the California and Illinois laws allowed for $1,000 fines to stores selling or renting proscribed games to minors. California’s law is scheduled to go into effect January 1, 2006.
