Jack Balkin

If the state dislikes the theme and design of the game, or dislikes the ideas that players and programmers communicate in the game space because these ideas are violent, offensive, or indecent, the state may not restrict the content of the design or the activities of the players under the First Amendment any more than it could ban books or movies because of the ideas expressed in them. The major exceptions to this principle are the same that apply to books and movies: the state may ban obscene expression, and it may protect children from exposure to indecency. Concerns about indecency, however, are best dealt with not by restricting the speech of adults in virtual spaces, but by restricting access to minors, or zoning the virtual space so that minors cannot enter certain areas of the virtual space.