Oh Look, Once Again A Judge Has Tossed Out Video Game Sale Ban As Unconstitutional
from the yes,-again dept
Over and over and over and over and over and over again, state politicians have been passing laws that ban the sale of certain video games to children and every single time the laws are struck down as unconstitutional. Yet, local politicians keep proposing similar laws. Why? Because it gives them a talking point for the next election and making it look like they're "protecting the children" (even if the law does no such thing). However, what they're really doing is wasting taxpayer money, because every time one of these unconstitutional laws is passed, the state has to go to court to defend it, only to find it thrown out again. The latest state to waste taxpayer money over this? My home state of California, who has now had its law thrown out as unconstitutional, just like all the rest. Let's make this clear: more than ten states have passed these laws and not a single one has been found to be constitutional. Any politician passing such a law these days knows that they're wasting taxpayer money on a law that will undoubtedly be found unconstitutional -- and yet they do it anyway. What does that say about the politicians pushing such legislation?
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Filed Under: legislation, video games
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Duh...
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Re: Duh...
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It's about being "first"...
Imagine the press coverage if one of those remaining states passed such a law and it stuck. Over protective parents would come out of the wood work to support her/him.
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Re: It's about being "first"...
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Parents are the Law for Minors
Ultimately it is up to the parents to decide what game their kids can and cannot have.
Somethings just need to be legislated at home. Politicians should stay out of it.
Our 14 y/o knows that he is only allowed to by car and sports video games, no games with guns or sexual content. He knows that violating those rules means lose of his console. That doesn't mean that he doesn't play them at a friends house where those parents are okay with it. So again, laws are what you make of them, and there is always away around it. Some parents just don't care and will buy any game for their kids.
Can I have the Patent for the VChip for Video Games. Parents enter a code on the kids game console and if the rating of the game exceeds the code entered, the game doesn't play.
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Re: Parents are the Law for Minors
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Re: Parents are the Law for Minors
I am pretty sure the Wii console has something like this. Whenever I do an update, it reminds to look at its Parental Controls. I never did, but I imagine it can limit play time and disallow certain ratings.
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Re: Parents are the Law for Minors
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game console vchip
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Re: game console vchip
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Re: Movies
> is why it's unconstitutional to ban the
> sale of certain games to minors, but not
> unconstitutional to do the same for movies
Because no one has done it with movies (other than hardcore porn movies). The rating system for mainsteam movies (G, PG, R, etc.) is entirely voluntary. The studio/theater industry voluntarily set up the rating system as a service to its customers. So while a given theater might refuse to sell a ticket to a 14-year-old for an R-rated movie, there's no law that requires them to do so. Indeed, if a theater *did* sell tickets to kids against the rating system, they couldn't be charged or fined by the government in any way. And if the goverment passed a law to enforce it, that law would be unconstitutional just like these video game laws are.
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That is because there is no law that prevents selling R rated movies to minors, it is industry regulated, but not law.
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Re: Playboy
> Playboy out of the hands of the under 18
> crowd legal?
Cite me the law that makes it a crime to sell a Playboy to someone under 18. [Hint: there isn't one. Retailers *choose* to enforce that policy to avoid controversy but there's no law forcing them to.]
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Re:
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Campaign Funds
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It is all a matter of will power.
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Oops, and to clarify...
This is a totally different issue from things like drugs/alcohol. Obviously, underaged people obtain these things illegally all the time, but it should remain illegal to aid in prosecution and whatnot. Video games are nowhere in the same ballpark. If a kid is caught with a violent video game, again, let the parents handle it. It is not a life-damaging substance.
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In answer...
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apparently the terminator disagrees.
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The Breakdown
I completely agree with things like the V-Chip because it allows a parent a respite from the 24/7 stress of being a parent. It is also something that does not inhibit the people that SHOULD be allowed to see such things. Almost every time I go to a video game store or some place that sells video games, I see the PARENT buying the M-Rated game for their kids. The sales associate will even bring it to their attention that the game is M-Rated and WHY it's M-Rated! I just don't even have words to express how stupid those parents are. Then they wonder why their kid(s) are degenerates!
As for the Playbody versus National Geographic: Playboy is utterly about sex. National Geographic is about learning. The natives just happen to be nude. The difference is that the former is for getting off. The latter actually has some learning potential in it. So why don't they have books that are purely for teaching what sex is in the library? The same reason the retards in charge refuse to let there be Sex Classes in Junior and/or High School. They want to teach just abstinence instead of safe sex. "If they don't know how, then they can't do it!" Yeah... We're talking about nature here. Not buidling a nuke. Morons...
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Here's a novel idea
If I wanted $60 to buy anything when I was growing up, my father would ask me 100 questions or so before he would even consider the request.
Now it seems like Parents just hand out money to their kids and let them buy whatever they want and don't care what their own kids are buying.
When I was in Best Buy recently I saw a boy of about 11 or 12 wanting to buy the most recent Grand Theft Auto game. His mother looked at it and said "OK" and GAVE him the cash for it. The boy actually pointed out to his Mother that he couldn't purchase it as it had a label saying no one under 18 blah blah blah, so his Mother said, "Give it to me, I'll buy it for you when we check out."
I imagine this sort of thing happens daily in these stores, so really, if the Parents don't care what their kids are doing with their time, should the government?
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To the above, by AvonGauss, yes, I understand that, and the difference between porn and artistic nudes, but why is it legal to say a child may not have a lewd magazine, but may buy a videogame that ultimately has some of the same content?
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HERE'S a great idea!
Now, for the idea. The next time anyone notices an article about some politico trying to pass some law that you deam a waste of taxpayers money, take the time to jot down the proposed legislative action number and the lawmakers name and state....then do a little background and find the names of that persons constituents that support said legislation.....and write letters and emails and phone calls, and encourage all your friends and acquaintances to do the same, and let them know of your disapproval and the fact that, in the same way they were elected in, they can be elected out....then take it to the polls on election day.
It wont be long before the legislators get the message that they work for, and are paid by, Us.
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Most parents pick up a video game box and think, "Oooh...this must be like Pacman, little Johnny will love it." Or their kids will beg and beg and the parents will get the kid the game to shut them up. Parents need to be parents, and not let the computer be the babysitter.
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Two 'tards
I have no idea why he even bothered to run on the Republican ticket as he shown time and again that he will do things that are traditionally abhorred by the right. The industry has come up with a very effective ratings system and has overall policed itself extremely well. These are the kind of actions that Republicans, whether you agree with them or not in this case, have championed in the past and IMO makes sense.
Leyland Yee on the other hand is doing his typical shtick. He's normally a racial ambulance chaser and the Asian equivilent of Al Sharpton when it comes to choosing his fights. Any cause he can get behind that puts him in a morally "invincible" position such as anything related to supposed "child saftey" or minority special interest is where you'll find that coward.
Before I get called out I'm a political moderate who is for anyone who uses common sense to solve issues rather than towing the party line no matter how idiotic. Both these representatives show the worst of what both parties have to offer.
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POLITICIANS DOING DOPY THINGS IM SHOCKED!
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Which states?
What are the other 4 states that had laws banning the sale of violent games?
I guess California makes 11.
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