Mediated Images of Violence and The First Amendment: From Video Games to The Evening News

In July 2004, a federal district court struck down, on First Amendment grounds, a Washington state law that restricted minors' access to video games containing “realistic or photographic-like depictions of aggressive conflict in which the player kills, injures, or otherwise causes physical harm to a human form in the game who is depicted, by dress or other recognizable symbols, as a public law enforcement officer.” The decision was anything but surprising. It followed in the footsteps of recent opinions issued by two federal appellate courts that held unconstitutional similar legislation regulating minors' access to fictional images of violence in video games. In summary, then, there is a laundry list of reasons why legislative bodies will continue to roll out bills in the foreseeable future that target minors' access to violent video games. This article argues that such future efforts are futile, fruitless, and doomed to failure.