ESA suit defends claim that games don’t enhance violence

‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ helped spur a California law, now blocked, against the sale of violent videogames to minors.

A federal judge temporarily blocked a California law that would have banned the sale of violent videogames to minors starting Jan. 1.

U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte in San Jose issued the ruling Wednesday in response to a lawsuit filed by the Entertainment Software Assn. The group, whose members include Electronic Arts, Microsoft and Sony, denies that the games can heighten players’ violent tendencies.

“I continue to believe that the evidence we’ve established that there is a harmful effect to children playing these ultra-violent videogames is overwhelming,” said state Assemblyman Leland Yee, the San Francisco Democrat who sponsored the bill.

The law, which was signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in October, will be on hold while the case goes to trial.

The law imposes a fine of up to $1,000 on retailers who sell or rent games deemed violent to people under 18.

The ESA, joined by the Video Software Dealers Assn., filed a lawsuit challenging the law as soon as the governor signed bill AB1179.

California became the third state with a law banning sales of violent games to minors. Michigan and Illinois enacted similar legislation earlier in the year; both of those states also face lawsuits by the ESA and VSDA.

Opponents of the law complain that it is vague, leaving it up to juries to decide whether a vidgame is violent under the law. That would allow the same game to be declared violent by one jury, but not violent by another, leading to confusion among retailers as to which games they are permitted to sell.

The ESA also objects on First Amendment grounds to the law’s attempt to regulate “expressive content.”

“For the sixth time in five years, federal courts have now blocked or struck down these state and local laws seeking to regulate the sale of games to minors based on their content,” ESA president Douglas Lowenstein said in an emailed statement. “None have upheld such statutes.”

The “Grand Theft Auto” franchise of videogames has attracted the most attention from vidgame critics, including politicians who have advocated federal legislation banning sale of such games to minors.

Source: Variety & Bloomberg