Videogame Industry Posts Another Legal Win, in La.

The decision came 2 days after a federal appeals court in Chicago upheld a U.S. Dist. Court declaring unconstitutional an Ill. ban on the sale of sexually explicit videogames to minors (CED Nov 29 p7). Federal courts in 9 cases the past 6 years “have now struck down or enjoined laws seeking to ban videogame sales to minors” and upheld none, ESA said.

What made Brady’s action “unusual and remarkable is that he issued his ruling from the bench rather than through a written decision, a strong signal that he felt the state’s arguments were so without merit that they didn’t even require a detailed opinion beyond the Judge’s August decision imposing the preliminary injunction,” ESA said. In his Aug. ruling, Brady said the state failed to take into consideration when passing the law the long line of previous cases holding that videogames are protected speech. ESA “will immediately file to recover its legal fees from the state as it has successfully done elsewhere.” It’s still awaiting payment in Ill.

“In 9 out of 9 cases, federal courts have struck down these grandstanding efforts by politicians to ban videogame sales to minors. It doesn’t get clearer than that,” said ESA Pres. Douglas Lowenstein. He added: “One hopes that enough is enough. Videogames are like rock and roll: They're here to stay and it’s about time for elected officials to focus their energies, and taxpayer dollars, on truly productive and useful programs to educate parents to use the tools industry has made available -- from ESRB ratings to parental control technologies.”

The game industry, meanwhile, got mostly “B” and better marks from the latest MediaWise Video Game Report Card, issued annually by the National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF) based on a survey of retailers’ ratings enforcement. The industry received B’s for ratings education and retailer policies and A’s for enforcement by “big retailers” and console manufacturers. But parental involvement got an “incomplete” and retailer ratings enforcement by “specialty stores” was slapped with an F. NIMF said 25 “sting operations” were conducted using 14 kids 10-16 years old Aug.-Oct. at stores in Cal., Ill., Iowa, Md. and Minn. Of the 25 efforts by kids to buy Mature (M) rated games without parents, “8 resulted in successful purchases,” a 32% success rate -- down from 44% in 2005, 34% in 2004 and 55% in 2003. Best Buy, Target and Wal-Mart “emerged with perfect scores,” but NIMF complained that specialty stores “seem more interested in making money than anything else.” The specialty stores weren’t named but likely included GameStop, the nation’s #1 videogame specialty retailer, which didn’t respond to a request for comment by our deadline.

The game industry gave this year’s report card a mixed review. “We're pleased that the 2006 report card is more balanced and measured than in previous years, and that it encourages parents to use the ESRB ratings and other tools and acknowledges the effectiveness of industry ratings and educational programs,” ESA’s Lowenstein said. But he added “we're disappointed that NIMF continues to selectively cite only research designed to validate its anti-videogame views and that it ignores a growing body of criticism challenging claims that games are harmful.” ESA also doesn’t believe “anyone is served by pointing a finger at parents,” which NIMF’s report did, he said. His comments came as published reports said a study by the Radiological Society of N. America indicated that teens who play violent videogames tend to exhibit increased activity in “emotional” areas of their brains and lower activity in “social control” areas. The results suggested that playing a certain kind of violent game might have different short-term effects on brain function than a nonviolent but exciting game, according to comments by Ind. U. School of Medicine Radiology Prof. Vincent Mathews quoted by Reuters.

The MediaWise report “demonstrates, as the Federal Trade Commission also found earlier this year, that major national retailers that sell computer and video games have successfully implemented aggressive policies to prohibit the sale” of M-rated games, said Bo Andersen, pres. of the Entertainment Merchants Assn. (EMA). Although the MediaWise survey “admittedly uses a much smaller sample -- 25 stores, compared to the hundreds surveyed by the FTC and ESRB -- and employs a less scientifically rigorous methodology than the other surveys, it does provide a useful yardstick each year for how computer and video game retailers are continuing to enhance their ratings education and enforcement methods,” he said. Andersen praised the retailers that got high marks but said nothing of the specialty retailers’ F.