Within a week of the striking down of the 2005 California law on free-speech grounds, the Supreme Court Monday agreed to decide whether California and six other states – Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Washington - can prohibit the sale of violent video games to the under-18s.

The law has been blocked on the basis of a free-speech challenge filed by the video gaming industry.

The law under debate imposes $1,000 fines on stores selling violent video games to the under-18s – violent games being defines as those games “in which the range of options available to a player includes killing, maiming, dismembering or sexually assaulting an image of a human being” in a way that is “patently offensive,” appeals to minors’ “deviant or morbid interests.”

Agreeing to hear California’s appeal, the court’s belief underlined two reasons for declaring the law unconstitutional – firstly, as per the justices, the law has led to the creation of a new category of unprotected expression; and secondly, it was a bit too broad, and, along with including torture of animals, it applicability might also extend to out-of-season hunting.

The Supreme Court decision to hear the case is a clear indication of the fact that some justices believe that the California law could be upheld as narrowly targeted because of ‘minors’ being its key focus, and its applicability to arguably violent videos.