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''Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association'', 564 U.S. 08-1448 (2011), is a landmark case by the Supreme Court of the United States that struck down a 2005 California law banning the sale of certain violent video games to children without parental supervision. In a 7–2 decision, the Court upheld the lower court decisions and nullified the law, ruling that video games were protected speech under the First Amendment as other forms of media.〔 The ruling was seen as a significant victory for the video game industry and a defeat for child protection groups. Several of the Court's justices suggested that the issue may need to be re-examined in the future, considering the changing nature of video games and their continuously improving technology. ==Background== Many video games, as early as 1976's ''Death Race'', incorporate some aspect of violence into the gameplay mechanic, such as killing an enemy with a weapon, using explosives to destroy a structure, or engaging in dangerous vehicle races. With modern technology, representations of such violence have become more realistic. This has led to concerns that minors that play such video games will become influenced by the violence, altering their real-life behavior. Academic studies have attempted to find a connection between violent video games and the rate of violence and crimes from those that play them; some have stated a connection exists,〔Anderson, C.A., & Bushman, B.J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, 353–359 〕〔Gentile, D. A. & Anderson, C. A. (2003). Violent video games: The newest media violence hazard. In D. A. Gentile (Ed.), Media violence and children. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishing〕 while others find no link between the matters.〔Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games, Lawrence Kutner PhD and Cheryl K. Olson ScD〕〔"Video Games and Real Life Aggression," Lillian Bensely and Juliet Van Eenwyk, Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 29, 2001〕〔"Video Games and Health," Mark Griffiths, British Medical Journal vol. 331, 2005〕 Incidents such as the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 have heightened concerns of a potential connection between video games and violent actions. As such, many concerned groups including politicians and parents have sought to enact regulatory controls of video games to prevent their sales to youth.〔 Prior and during the ''Brown v.'' case, parties like the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) sought to overturn similar state laws that placed limits on the sales of violent video games to minors in Michigan and Illinois. The ESA won these cases, with the laws being found unconstitutional and overly restrictive of protected speech.〔〔 These states did not further challenge the court rulings.〔 The ESA similarly defeated a Louisiana bill in the 2006 ''Entertainment Software Association v. Foti'' case that would have attempted to ban sales of violent video games from minors. To counteract these increasing complaints and attempts at legislation, the video game industry in the United States created the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) in 1994. The ESRB, like the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system, is a voluntary and self-regulated body that examines the content of video games as provided by the publisher before distribution, and given a rating describing the content within, generally classified from being all ages-appropriate to adult audiences only. Video game distributors are similarly bound by voluntary compliance to check the age of the purchaser against the rating of the game to prevent the sale of mature titles to younger players. Most stores prevent the sale of unrated games, and as such, virtually every video game sold at retail in the United States is rated by the ESRB.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 ESRB Frequently Asked Questions )〕 Attempts have been made to mandate the ratings system; the Family Entertainment Protection Act, a 2005 bill introduced into the U.S. Congress by Senators Hillary Clinton, Joseph Lieberman, and Evan Bayh, would have made ESRB participation mandatory with oversight by the Federal Trade Commission, and introduced fines for selling Mature or Adult-Only content to minors. The bill, however, did not clear the Senate. Though the ESRB met criticism in 2000–2005 for the ease of access of mature-rated games to minors, the Board has improved its efforts to enforce the ratings system at retailers. A 2011 report issued by the Federal Trade Commission found that the voluntary controls by the ESRB had the highest success rate of any other media industry, preventing sales of mature titles to minors 87% of the time. Similar content rating systems exist in other countries, including the British Board of Film Classification, the Australian Classification Board, and Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organization. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass'n」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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