Scholars Voice their Objections to Video Game Ordinance in Court

A group of 33 international scholars, including media experts, social psychologists and academicians from U.C.L.A., London University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others, have filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis, Missouri, objecting to an earlier federal court's upholding of a parental consent ordinance in St. Louis County. The ordinance, put in place by the County of St. Louis, requires parental consent for minors to purchase video games that depict graphic violence. The scholars joined together with the Free Expression Policy Project, a New York think-tank organization that has filed legal briefs in other court cases that involve limitations on access to media. A different federal appellate court earlier struck down a similar ordinance that had been enacted in Indianapolis, Indiana.