Hollywood: Don't Block Violent Videogame Sales to Kids

Hollywood took aim at California's attempted prohibition of the sale of violent video games to children, filing an amicus brief on behalf of the defendants, a collection of retailers.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), in conjunction with the Directors, Producers, Screen Writers, and Screen Actors Guilds joined the National Association of Theatre Owners and other groups in a filing that argued that parents could judge which games to buy for their kids without additional regulation.
The case, "Schwarzenegger v. Entertainment Merchants Association," is scheduled for oral arguments on November 2.
The motion-picture industry used the argument of the independent rating system (PG-13, R, and other labels) to argue that a method of self-policing works. Hollywood also made the case that if other states were to follow California's lead and enact their own restrictions, the resulting legal tangle would harm the industry.
"The fundamental lesson of the movie rating system is that a system of self-regulation can be sufficient, without additional government regulation, to enable parents to make informed judgments concerning the suitability of exposing their children to violent or other potentially objectionable content," the brief argued.
"The movie rating system has been widely recognized as an effective means of enabling parents to make informed judgments concerning the suitability of movie content, taking into account their child's level of maturity and individual sensitivities," Hollywood continued in its brief. "As discussed above, an overwhelming majority of parents believe that the rating system accomplishes that very purpose. In fact, it is no overstatement to say that the rating system has become part of the fabric of American life, with the result that the average person on the street could readily identify the significance of a 'PG' or 'R' rating."
The studios then made the argument that California needs to show that the Hollywood-like ESRB game ratings system was "insufficient to enable parents to exercise their right to make informed judgments concerning the suitability of exposing their children to violent content".
The exception would be if the court ruled that violent content was exempt from First Amendendment rights of free speech, a restriction that would eliminate films like 2009's The Hurt Locker, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
The studios also made the argument that many popular films have been spun off into video games, with video reused from the actual motion picture, which would pose another regulatory obstacle.