Game Industry Sues to Void Minn. Law On Sales to Minors

Unlike other legislative proposals, Minn. kids who break this law would risk a $25 fine, with retailers forced to hang signs “in a location that is clearly visible to consumers” in 30-point type explaining the law and the penalty, the groups said in their federal suit. Laws elsewhere set fines not for customers but retailers, the said, though the ESA observed that attempts were made “but ultimately not included in the [Minn.] bill to penalize retailers who sell or rent such videogames to young people.”

The Minn. act violates the First Amendment and other constitutional provisions “by imposing penalties on the purchase or rental or videogames based solely on a game’s content,” the suit said. “By incorporating the voluntary rating system” set up by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) “into a legal prescription,” the law “violates basic tenets of due process by delegating to a private entity the authority to determine what actions are illegal for minors to perform,” the groups said.

The plaintiffs want a declaratory judgment that the law -- set to take effect Aug. 1 -- is void, with preliminary and permanent injunctions against enforcement. EMA and ESA seek attorneys’ fees and other unspecified costs. Similar laws have been struck down by 6 courts in 5 years, including the Eighth Circuit, which governs Minn., they said. The prior cases ended up “costing taxpayers thousands of dollars in legal fees,” they said.

“The bill’s tortured effort to end run the First Amendment by punishing kids directly fails under the Constitution because children have rights under the First Amendment, like all other citizens,” ESA Pres. Doug Lowenstein said as his group filed. Minn. is “attempting to impose liability on children because they know that courts have consistently held that they cannot penalize retailers [but] we believe that the courts will agree that fining children violates the First Amendment as well,” he said: “If this law is implemented, it will not only limit First Amendment rights for Minnesota’s residents; it will create a huge amount of confusion for retailers, parents and children.” Lowenstein is “confident the court will affirm our position given the rulings on similar statutes in other jurisdictions,” he said.

The bill marks an “unenforceable effort to substitute the government’s judgment for parental supervision,” ESA said. The industry’s products are being “unreasonably and unfairly singled out, saying parents, not government or industry, must be the gatekeepers on what comes in the home,” it said.

Minn. legislators “have enacted a videogame restriction law that they apparently do not want enforced and understand cannot constitutionally be enforced,” EMA Pres. Bo Andersen said: “It will be the taxpayers of the state who pay the penalty when this law is overturned, as it must be.”

The law is unnecessary, since parents and retailers are “already doing a good job in monitoring what games kids purchase,” ESA said. Data show parents are involved in game purchase or rental 89% of the time, and 87% of the time kids get parents’ permission before buying or renting a videogame, it said. Leading retailers have ways to prevent sale of M- rated games to minors, it reiterated, noting the National Institute on Media and the Family found, before the new enforcement systems went into full effect, that retailers prevent sale of M-rated videogames to minors 66% of the time.

A game fight is brewing in La., whose senate unanimously voted Tues. for HB-1381, which would outlaw purchase by under-18s of violent videogames. A published report quoted sponsor Rep. Roy Burrell (D-Shreveport) as saying he studied laws deemed unconstitutional, concluding “the problem with those laws was they attempted to define violence.” So he devised a 3-pronged test akin to the U. S. Supreme Court’s obscenity standard; under his law, a violent game must show violence in a manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community about what’s suitable for children. Unlike the Minn. law, retailers violating the law would risk fines of $100-$2,000 and up to a year in prison. The La. bill awaits signature by Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D). EMA and ESA didn’t comment by our deadline. The La. Senate vote came soon after published reports said police there seized videogames from the home of a 16-year-old suspected of murdering a man who was beaten and shot in the face. Police apparently were trying to learn if the suspect copied a scene from a violent videogame.