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My jaw dropped open when I read the press release of the Parents Television Council, PTC Applauds Gov. Schwarzenegger for Appealing Violent Video Game Ruling, in which the PTC President suggests, by implication, that parents need not be involved in their children’s decisions to purchase video games, so long as they are not rated M or AO. (“’Parents should be involved in any decision to purchase a violent or sexually explicit video game rated M or AO,’” said Tim Winter, president of the PTC.” Why not all games?)

To make matters worse, the press release was actually applauding the California governor’s decision to appeal the latest of a string of rulings holding various state efforts to turn parenting over to game publishers and retailers (at least when it comes to video games) unconstitutional.

It is heartbreaking that a self-described parents group would label “overzealous” the judges who have been unanimous in applying our good old-fashioned Bill of Rights exactly the way we were taught in law school. When the Constitution says that governments shall make “no law” abridging the freedom of speech, no exception is made for censorship “in the aid of lazy or disinterested parents.” This is truly an odd parent advocacy group, as it advocates contempt for the law and seems bent on asking the government to relieve parents of responsibility for guiding their children’s choices in entertainment products, preferring that video game publishers and retailers took on that role.

When my children were in preschool and elementary school, I signed them up at our local video store and instructed the store to impose no restrictions on what they could rent. They are now adults, but in all those years, I never had a problem with their movie and video game selections, and was proud that they learned to distinguish between trash and treasure. No matter how much trust I may have in my local video store, I can’t imagine turning over to it responsibility for guiding my children, much less the joy of exploring new media and engaging in movie and video game critiques with them.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 12:13 am and is filed under First Amendment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.