Next steps after Supreme Court affirmed First Amendment covers video games

AFTER years of legal wrangling, the expenditure of millions of dollars of public funds and countless hours of work by government officials, the U.S. Supreme Court definitively stated recently what has been clear to many:

"Video games qualify for First Amendment protection. Like protected books, plays, and movies, they communicate ideas through familiar literary devices and features distinctive to the medium."

With Supreme Court clarity in hand, it is time for all those interested in the issue to work together on constitutional and effective programs to empower parents with the tools and information they need to control what their children play. The road map is clear.

The current video game rating system — the Entertainment Software Rating Board — has been lauded by the Federal Trade Commission as the gold standard of entertainment ratings systems and recognized time and time again for its integrity and effectiveness. The rating board has six easily recognized ratings and more than 30 useful content descriptors that help inform purchasing decisions.

We work with scores of public officials and stakeholders to raise awareness about the rating system and will continue to do so. Boston's Mayor Thomas M. Menino, attorneys general, the New Orleans Saints and the Chicago Blackhawks are just a few of the groups and individuals who are committed to educating parents about video-game ratings.

We are partners in Microsoft's Get Game Smart campaign, which promotes ratings and the parental controls available on game consoles, another important tool for parents.

Because of our industry's deep and innovative commitment to partnering with retailers, the ESRB rating system is strongly enforced at point of sale. In a recent study, the FTC found that the vast majority of children (about 87 percent) who tried to buy M-rated games were prevented by retailers from doing so — far better than any other entertainment industry.

In an overwhelming majority of instances, parents are making the decisions about what video games their children play.

As an industry, we are working to do our part by providing parents with the tools and information they need, including providing password-protected parental controls on all new video-game consoles. These robust controls allow parents' choices to be enforced even when they are not at home.

As parents continue to take an active role in reviewing the video games their children play, we will support them by fulfilling our responsibility. Now the time has come to put aside critics' quixotic battles and constitutionally flawed legislative proposals.

Confrontation has been costly, time-consuming and fruitless. There is a better way to achieve a goal we all share — to ensure that parents make wise entertainment choices — and to do it while respecting constitutional liberties.

We look forward to working with policymakers who wisely choose that path.