Opinion ID: 3064441
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: It causes the game, as a whole, to lack

Text: serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors. (B) Enables the player to virtually inflict serious injury upon images of human beings or characters with substantially human characteristics in a manner which is especially heinous, cruel, or depraved in 4 The parties dispute whether the Act bans purchases or rentals by minors who are accompanied by their parents. The Act does not speak to whether there is an exception for sales to minors accompanied by a parent; it states only that it does not apply “if the violent video game is sold or rented to a minor by the minor’s parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or legal guardian.” Cal. Civ. Code § 1746.1(c). 1944 VIDEO SOFTWARE v. SCHWARZENEGGER that it involves torture or serious physical abuse to the victim. Id. at § 1746(d)(1).5 Borrowing language from federal death penalty jury instructions, the Act also defines the terms “cruel,” “depraved,” “heinous,” and “serious physical abuse,”6 and states that “[p]ertinent factors in determining whether a 5 The State concedes on appeal, consistent with the district court’s conclusion, that the alternate definition of “violent video game” in section 1746(d)(1)(B) is unconstitutional because it “does not provide an exception for material that might have some redeeming value to minors . . . .” The State’s contention that this section of the Act is severable based on the severability clause contained in California Civil Code § 1746.5 is subsequently addressed. 6 Section 1746(d)(2) includes the following definitions: (A) “Cruel” means that the player intends to virtually inflict a high degree of pain by torture or serious physical abuse of the victim in addition to killing the victim. (B) “Depraved” means that the player relishes the virtual killing or shows indifference to the suffering of the victim, as evidenced by torture or serious physical abuse of the victim. (C) “Heinous” means shockingly atrocious. For the killing depicted in a video game to be heinous, it must involve additional acts of torture or serious physical abuse of the victim as set apart from other killings. (D) “Serious physical abuse” means a significant or considerable amount of injury or damage to the victim’s body which involves a substantial risk of death, unconsciousness, extreme physical pain, substantial disfigurement, or substantial impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty. Serious physical abuse, unlike torture, does not require that the victim be conscious of the abuse at the time it is inflicted. However, the player must specifically intend the abuse apart from the killing. (E) “Torture” includes mental as well as physical abuse of the victim. In either case, the virtual victim must be conscious of the abuse at the time it is inflicted; and the player must specifically intend to virtually inflict severe mental or physical pain or suffering upon the victim, apart from killing the victim. VIDEO SOFTWARE v. SCHWARZENEGGER 1945 killing depicted in a video game is especially heinous, cruel, or depraved include infliction of gratuitous violence upon the victim beyond that necessary to commit the killing, needless mutilation of the victim’s body, and helplessness of the victim.”7 Id. at § 1746(d)(2)-(3). The Act also imposes a labeling requirement. It requires that each “violent video game” imported into or distributed in California must “be labeled with a solid white ‘18’ outlined in black,” which shall appear on the front face of the game’s package and be “no less than 2 inches by 2 inches” in size. Id. at § 1746.2. A.B. 1179 states that the State of California has two compelling interests that support the Act: (1) “preventing violent, aggressive, and antisocial behavior”; and (2) “preventing psychological or neurological harm to minors who play violent video games.” A.B. 1179 also “finds and declares” that:
video games, including sexual and heinous violence, makes those minors more likely to experience feelings of aggression, to experience a reduction of activity in the frontal lobes of the brain, and to exhibit violent antisocial or aggressive behavior.
lence suffer psychological harm from prolonged exposure to violent video games. The State included in the excerpts of record several hundred pages of material on which the Legislature purportedly relied in passing the Act. While many of the materials are social science studies on the asserted impact of violent video 7 Legislative materials in the record indicate that the Legislature used these terms in the Act because they survived claims of unconstitutional vagueness in United States v. Jones, 132 F.3d 232 (5th Cir. 1998). 1946 VIDEO SOFTWARE v. SCHWARZENEGGER games on children, other documents are varied and include legal analyses, general background papers, position papers, etc. Dr. Craig Anderson, whose work is central to the State’s arguments in this case, is listed as an author of roughly half of the works included in the bibliography.