A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that the law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors is unconstitutional. The decision refers to a 2005 law, which the court considered it violates the First Amendment’s guarantee to free speech.

 

 The law has never been enforced, but if it had been, it would have required buyers to show identification documents upon purchase. The decision was unanimous among the three-judge panel .

 

Under the same law, retailers would have been liable for substantial fines, up to $1,000, the video game would have had to carry an ‘18’ label.

 

But the judges did not find it necessary to restrict video game access even more, arguing that the court has already limited access to sexual content, and that the state was unable to demonstrate that violent video games have harmful effects on minors.

 

Studies on the impact of video games on children have been contradictory so far, in the sense that it hasn’t actually been proven that they instigate to violence or that they cause psychological harm to children.

 

A recent study by Iowa State University Researchers revealed that violent video game play early in a school year leads to higher levels of aggression during the school year. But a study conducted by Australian researcher Grant Devilly found no evidence to link violence and video games.

 

Devilly found that children predisposed to violence, and who were more reactive to their environments, were also likely to change behavior after playing a violent video game. However, while some of them became aggressive, others did not.

 

Even Stephen King reacted to a Massachusetts bill according to which video games depicting violence should not be sold to under-18 buyers, arguing that while some believe video games exist for one purpose only, “so kids can experience the vicarious thrill of killing,” and children should not be under a constant barrage of violence and think it is all right, it is not the games that alter their minds, “as games are mere reflections of what goes around them in reality.”