VOA慢速英语:Game Over for Limits on Violent Video Games

America's video game industry was the winner in a decision last week by the United States Supreme Court.
在上周美国最高法院做出的裁决中，美国的视频游戏行业成为赢家。

The justices rejected a law in California that banned the sale or rental of violent video games to people under eighteen. They said the two thousand five law violated the free speech guarantee in the First Amendment to the Constitution. The vote was seven to two.
法官否决了加利福尼亚州禁止向18岁以下未成年人出售暴力视频游戏的法律。他们称加州2005年的这部法律违反了宪法第一修正案中关于言论自由的规定。法官之间的投票是7:2。

The court decided that video games are a protected form of creative expression like books, plays and movies. Paul McGreal, dean of the University of Dayton law school in Ohio, says California did not see gaming that way.
法庭裁决，视频游戏就像图书，音乐，电影一样，都是受保护的创造性的表达方式。俄亥俄州代顿大学法学院院长称，加州出台该法律并没有取得显著效果。

PAUL McGREAL: “The state of California tried to argue that this was not speech, it was more of an activity because children interact and play with the video games, and so it’s not traditional speech like a book or like a magazine.”
PAUL McGREAL: “加州试图辩护称这并不是言论，而是一种行为，因为孩子们玩视频游戏的时候与游戏进行互动，并不是像图书和杂志一样的传统的言论。”

California lawmakers argued that violent games were especially harmful to children. But the court said they were no more harmful than the violence in other forms of media. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion. He pointed to the violence in fairy tales like "Snow White" and "Cinderella" and in cartoons.
加州的立法者争辩称，暴力游戏对儿童来说危害特别大。但是法庭认为，暴力视频游戏并不比其他性质的媒体更加有害。大法官Antonin Scalia书写了大多数人的意见。他指出了《白雪公主》和《灰姑娘》等通话故事以及其他动画片中的暴力。

Professor McGreal says the court sees its job as only to decide what is and is not legally protected speech.
McGreal教授称法庭认为自己的责任只是决定哪些是受法律保护的言论。

PAUL McGREAL: “The Supreme Court said we’re going to decide what counts as speech and then leave it up to private individuals, not the government, to decide what speech they want to see and want to view. We don’t want to get the Supreme Court into making fine distinctions about what is better than others, because that will lead us down a slippery slope. Once you start deciding that, what’s to stop the government from saying that, for example, Grimm’s fairy tales themselves are too violent, or that particular books should be banned?”
PAUL McGREAL：“最高法庭称，我们将决定哪些是言论，然后由个人，而不是政府来决定他们想要看到想要听到哪些言论。我们不想由最高法院最终来辨别哪些是更好的，因为这将导致我们走下坡路。一旦你开始决定，如何制止政府的那些言论，例如，某种童话故事太暴力，或者某些图书应该被禁止？”

In fact, from nineteen fifteen to nineteen fifty-two, the Supreme Court permitted censorship of movies for fear they could be "used for evil."
事实上，从1915年到1952年，由于担心影片被用于邪恶的目的，最高法庭曾经允许对影片进行审查。

Today the film and music industries have voluntary rating systems, and so does the video game industry. For example, extremely violent games are rated "M" for mature. Abby Halloran, a manager at a Gamestop store in Clinton, Maryland, says these are meant for ages seventeen and older.
如今，影片和音乐行业都有着自愿的评级系统，视频游戏行业也是如此。例如，极端暴力的游戏被评为“M”，表示仅适合成年人。马里兰州一家视频游戏商店老板Abby Halloran称，这些游戏只适合17岁以上的人玩。

ABBY HALLORAN: “If there is blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, strong sexual content -- anything like that, use of drugs and alcohol -- those are all M-rated.”
ABBY HALLORAN：“如果涉及血腥，极度暴力，不雅语言，色情内容，吸毒，酗酒等内容，这些影片都为评为M。”

Only five percent of the more than sixteen hundred games rated last year were rated M. Still, Ms. Halloran says M-rated games like Call of Duty, Halo and Fallout are the most popular games in the store. Children need a parent’s permission to buy them.
去年，1600多个游戏中只有5%被评为M。 Halloran称M级游戏中像《使命召唤》, 《光晕》和《辐射》等都是商店里最受欢迎的游戏.孩子们需要父母的同意才能购买.

ABBY HALLORAN: “If they don’t have a parent with them they can’t buy it. If their parent says it’s okay we’re obligated to sell it to them. But we’re obligated to ask the parent and explain to them all of the reasons why it’s a more mature rated game. And if they still agree with it then we’ll sell it to them. But the majority of the time when we tell them what’s in it, they don’t.”
ABBY HALLORAN：“在没有家长陪同一起，他们就不能购买这些游戏。如果他们的家长说没关系，那么我们有义务卖给他们。但是我们有责任向家长解释这种游戏被评为M级的原因。如果他们仍然赞成购买，那我们会卖给他们。但是大部分时候，当我们告诉他们实情后，他们就不会再买了。”