Ruling this morning on the Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down the Californian law making the sale of violent video games to minors a crime. Citing the first amendment, the ruling upheld video games as protected free speech and therefore not eligible to be censored.

Yay…sort of. Not that this is a bad thing for the games industry, certainly, but is it really something to parade and brag about across the internet? Honestly, who was surprised by this as though the United States doesn’t have a long history of protecting different forms of written and verbal speech, like newspapers, music, and television? A decision for free speech was inevitable.

No, the excitement in this ruling lies with the parents. Stripped of yet another buffer from actually being a part of their children’s lives, the importance of parental supervision has never been greater. True, 8 year-olds probably can’t walk into a store by themselves now and pick up a copy of Blood Lust Decapitation 4: Revenge of the Blood Orgy, but this ruling does increase access to games that parents might not want in little Timmy’s 360.

I hope Blood Lust Decapitation 4: Revenge of the Blood Orgy would be something like this.

So for any parents reading this, please, actually be involved in your child’s life. I know kids suck, but you (probably) signed up for this, remember?

Of course, some lawmakers have probably already initiated their next evil scheme to keep games out of kid’s hands and parents ignorant of what goes on in their own homes, but for now, the responsibility lies with the adults. That’s right, being a parent means giving a crap about your kids, despite what 16 and Pregnant has told us recently.

So what do you think about this recent decision? Talk about it in the forums!

Tags: Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association, parents, responsibility, Supreme Court, violent video games