Video Games

12/20/2012
Video Games

Worst Facts Make Worst Law with Violent Video Games

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:43pm

It’s perfectly understandable that after the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., everyone is casting about for an answer to a singular question: why?

As past is prologue, we shouldn’t be surprised that several members of Congress have settled on media violence as the possible culprit, noting stories that Adam Lanza may have “obsessively” played Starcraft and Call of Duty. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is reportedly circulating legislation mandating a study on youth exposure to violent video games.

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04/24/2012
Video Games

The Freedom to Game

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 1:17pm

In 1954, German-American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham published the now infamous Seduction of the Innocent, a book chronicling the supposed harm caused to America's youth by comic books. Wertham's book prompted a wave of hand-wringing around the nation.

Now, we're seeing a new round of the same hysteria directed at video games — old wine in new digital bottles. And, the history of comic book censorship is directly relevant for the contemporary debate over "violent video games."

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03/26/2012
Video Games

Bill Proposes Labeling Video Games Like Cigarettes

By Gabe Rottman, Legislative Counsel, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 2:57pm

Representatives Joe Baca (D-CA) and Frank Wolf (R-VA) introduced a deceptively simple bill last week that is totally unnecessary, potentially very harmful to Americans’ First Amendment rights and needlessly tries to play parent for millions of American kids.

The bill, designated H.R. 4204, would require every video game with a rating above “E-for-Everyone” from the Electronic Software Rating Board (or “ESRB”) to carry the ominous, tobacco-style admonition: “WARNING: Exposure to violent video games has been linked to aggressive behavior.” 

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06/27/2011
Wal-Mart

Supreme Court Term Is Pro-Business and Pro-Free Speech

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 2:22pm

The Supreme Court ended the 2010 term today, delivering the much-anticipated decision in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, a case that challenged California's ban of the sale of violent video games to minors. In a 7-2 decision, the Court found the state's law violated the First Amendment. The Court called California's attempt to put video games in a new category not protected by the First Amendment "unpersuasive."

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07/01/2011
E-Verify

This Week in Civil Liberties

By Jessica Monaco, ACLU at 6:22pm

The theme this week was "without": combating the spread of AIDS without actual tools and information to combat the spread of AIDS, searches without warrants, protections for business without protections for everybody else, government bureaucracy without privacy or security, accessing medical marijuana without federal government interference, sentencing without (or at least with a lot less) unfairness. That last one is good, the rest not so much....

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