Media Scholar's Brief in St. Louis Case
Produced by the Free Expression Policy Project
On September 25 2002, 33 media scholars, historians, psychologists and games researchers filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit opposing a law that bars minors from video games containing "graphic violence". The scholars' brief states that most laboratory experiments and other efforts to prove adverse effects from media violence have yielded null results. The brief explains that those researchers reporting "aggressive" effects, moreover have often manipulated the numbers, ignored negative findings, and used measures of "aggression" that are artificial and often ridiculous (for example popping balloons or recognizing "aggressive" words on a computer screen).
After striking the St. Louis law as unconstitutional, the court ordered the defendants to pay the video game industry $180,659 to cover their attorney's fees in this case.
View a summary and full copy of the Amicus Brief.
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