Federal court blocks California law on gaming

Federal court blocks California law on gaming

A federal judge has blocked a recently passed law in the state of California, which made it illegal to sell or rent violent video games to minors. The judge claimed that he had doubts that if the law can be implemented in the real world and whether it can even be proved that games indeed results into violent behavior in kids.

This preliminary injunction was based on the research finding which claimed that the statute risked violating the right to free speech. The country has seen a ferocious battle from the culture police and even the politicians, who are demanding a ban on violent games claiming that they leave bad effects on the youth of today.

The video gaming industry is big and was worth around $7.3 billion in U.S. sales last year. So much so, that it is giving decent competition to the movie business in the country. However, the US Senators including Hillary Clinton have claimed that the industry’s self-rating system was being inadequately enforced. The issue was highlighted when earlier this year it was discovered that a hidden sex sequence was left untouched in the DVDs of the game GTA: San Andreas, which were shipped in the market.

However, the latest decision of the courts have shown favors for the American video gaming industry which has somewhat struggled this year with falling sales in wake of protests from the government and bans on games like GTA.