Group urges Shurtleff to stay out of violent video game case

SALT LAKE CITY — Family advocates again called on Utah's chief law enforcer to not join a lawsuit challenging a California law that forbids the sale of violent video games to children.

But Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said political expediency won't determine whether he files a court brief supporting the video game industry in its legal battle to overturn the ban.

"I want to do what's right, but ultimately, it's going to come down to what's right and what's political," Shurtleff said. "And if my only reason for not supporting this brief against the California law would be for political reasons, then I don't want to do that. But I'm still deciding."

Shurtleff has until Friday to make a decision. The law has not taken effect, because the Entertainment Software Association, an industry trade group, sued in federal court on the grounds that it would violate constitutionally protected free speech rights. The case currently rests with U.S. Supreme Court.

The Utah Eagle Forum on Wednesday held its second news conference in less than a month to urge Shurtleff to refrain from coming out against a law it says protects children. The group brought in attorney Andy Schlafly, who filed friend-of-the-court briefs for the national Eagle Forum in support of the California law.

The Utah Eagle Forum also showed YouTube videos of violent, bloody games in which characters dismember and decapitate each with chain saws and sickles.

"I wonder if Attorney General Shurtleff has actually seen these video games," said Schlafly, son of Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly.

Some children who are not mature enough to handle the games "may get addicted to the games and go on a killing rampage" like those that have occurred recently in schools, he said. "The only thing that is more correlated to violence in teenagers is membership in gangs."

Shurtleff said there is no solid evidence that banning the sale of violent video games to children will protect them.

"I've studied this big-time. I've studied books on it and have read peer-reviewed analyses because the question is: Is there a connection between playing the violent video games and violent behavior? The truth is there is not," he said.

Schlafly said he is not opposed to parents having the right to buy the games for their children, but violent games should not be sold directly to minors, who he says have limited free speech rights.