Video Game Ban Reviewed by U.S. Supreme Court

In a test of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, the U.S. Supreme Court will make a decision about violent video game sales to children ("Court Evaluates Violent Video Game Case," PBS NewsHour, November 2, 2010). The case involves a 2005 California law never taking effect that "bans the sale or rental of violent video games to anyone under the age of 18" and pits the state against the Entertainment Merchants Association, a video game trade group. Check out the transcript of the PBS NewsHour report at the link above and the YouTube video below of the interview.

Review selected library titles related to video game violence at LSC-CyFair Branch Library. Click the title of a listed item, select the "Request" button in the listing, and enter your library card number and PIN for each title you want to reserve for pick up at the library. Call the library at 281-290-3219 to check your PIN if you do not remember it. Use these subject words and phrases to find more in the library catalog:

• video games
  
• video games and teenagers
  
• violence in mass media

Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter by Tom Bissell - Pantheon Books, 2010.
call number: 794.8 Bis
"Grand Theft Auto IV is both a waste of time and 'the most colossal creative achievement of the last 25 years' according to this scintillating meditation on the promise and discontents of video games. Bissell excels both at intellectual commentary and evocative reportage on the experience of playing games, while serving up engrossing mise-en-scene narratives of the mayhem." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt

Video Games edited by Laurie Willis - Greenhaven Press, 2010.
call number: 794.8 Vid
Includes essays on topic such as "violence in video games reduces violence in the real world" and "video games are not responsible for people's violent actions." - Table of contents excerpt

Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth about Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do by Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson - Simon & Schuster, 2008.
call number: 302.231 Kut
"Kutner and Olson's own study of some 1,300 middle-school gamers in Pennsylvania and South Carolina, while limited, produced interesting insights. Kutner and Olson advise parents to be involved with their kids' game playing, just as they should be with their other activities. While not profound, the authors, in a calm, evenhanded approach to a problem many parents find frustratingly difficult, address many social fears and make them less scary." - Publishers Weekly review excerpt