Jack Thompson - Is He Right Or Wrong?

[FireWater]

Well unfortunately with this country we get the benefits and the burdens of free speech.

Video Games will never be silenced as they are protected under the first amendment, and hopefully my state (NJ) will not spend a single dime trying to outlaw them as they will just fail and waste my money.

If they want to restrict sale to minors, I see nothing wrong with that, but some groups want the government to review every single source of material which is absolutely ludacris.

 

[AltF4]

Ratings and the restriction of sale to children is not an issue with law. The ESRB is not an officially sanctioned organization, the games ratings are completely voluntary by the industry. The reason an 11 year old can't go into GameStop and buy a game rated M is because GameStop chooses to, not because it's against the law.

Same goes for movie ratings. An 11 year old can't see a rated R movie because the movie theater chooses not to let him in, not because there's a law that says he can't. People often have the misconception that there's some kind of law that prohibits underage children from seeing movies, but that is not the case.

There are theaters that don't follow movie ratings and will let anyone of any age see any movie.

 

[Ophelius]

Okay. Here's another question. Is pornography protected by the first amendment? What about sexually explicit books?

 

[Gamer4Fire]

Most definitely are.