The high court agreed Monday with a federal court’s 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 said the law violated minors’ rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments.
Ginsberg v. New York, 390 U.S. 629 (1968)
The issue in this case was whether a New York criminal obscenity statute that prohibited the sale of magazines with sexual content to minors was constitutional on its face. A store owner was found guilty of selling two adult magazines to a 16 year old boy in violation of the criminal statute prohibiting the sale of such magazines to minors. The state supreme court affirmed the conviction and the store owner was denied leave to appeal to the state court of appeals. The store owner alleged that the constitutional freedom of expression secured to a citizen to read or see sexually explicit material could not depend upon the age of a citizen.
The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the lower court, finding that the statute did not “invade[s] the area of freedom of expression constitutionally secured to minors.” 390 U.S. at 637. The Court found that the criminal statute in question was rationally related to the interest of protecting children because both parents and the state have an interest in the well being of children. The Court also held that it was rational for the legislature to find that the minors’ exposure to sexually explicitly magazines might be harmful to children, even if the same material is suitable for adults. Thus, the Court found that the statute was constitutional and affirmed the lower court.
http://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/childrights/content/notes/landmark_01.html
Not sure how this is different.
Interesting. What is the difference between this and selling pornography to minors?
Good decision. Let the parents and retailers decide. If the law were in place a video game where a Muzzie got hit in the face with a pie could be deemed “too violent.”
Lets see.... So children have a 1st Amendmant right to receive digital communications generated by adults. And by that reasoning, adults have a Constitutional right to communicate with children.
I am sure there are a few paedophiles on the Internet, that will be happy to hear this.