ABSTRACT
As in other evolving areas of media law, much attention has been paid recently to the so-called new media, particularly Internet related activity and especially those areas involving children’s use of online content including violent video games and pornographic content depicting children. Two relatively recent cases symbolic of these areas, Entertainment Software Association v. Swanson, 519F.3d 768 (8th Cir. 2008) and Video Software Dealers Association v. Schwarzenegger, 556 F 3d 950 (9th Cir. 2009), reaffi rmed rulings that content-based regulation of free speech is subject to scrutiny so that violent speech is considered protected, while specifying violent content that may appeal to “morbid interests” is open for review and U.S. v. Williams, 128 S. Ct. 1830 (2008), in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law prohibiting child pornography in cases in which material is thought to depict real children.
