A question about parents and gaming...

[wgreer25]

I am one of the old fogies here on the escapist and I wanted to get the communites input on something.

All of us on here know about the bad stigma games have been given about games causing violence in children (blah, blah...). I usually answer that false acusation by saying it is the parents responsibilty to know what their kids are doing.

Now I know the escapist if full of poeple of many different ages, and we even have a few parents. I'm not a parent yet myself (wife and I have been trying for over a year, and I don't mind all the practice), but I do hope my kids will like games and I plan on evaluating what they play and I will restrict their games to what I think is appropriate (but I will be pretty damn lenient since I would love to play something with my kid).

So my question is this... to the younger escapists, Do your parrents restrict games from you, or do they monitor what you play, or do they not care? To the escapists with kids, same questions but from a parents point of view?

I'm not trying to bash anybody's parenting skills, I'm just have a social curiosity as to how this generation of gamers/parents work. What is the general dynamic?

 

[Sethzard]

My parents don't let me play realistic games with crime, e.g. gta 4, other that that it's up to me, (i'm on my brothers account, i'm 14)

 

[Doom_bringer58]

My parents don't really care, unless it's all blood and gore, like what the SAW game is gonna be

 

[El Poncho]

The only game my mum and dad don't let me play is GTA and Saints, but I borrowed saints from my friend so I got to play that.

 

[Sassafrass]

my parents couldn't give a flying fish. they bought me GTA: San Andreas when i was about 13-14.

 

[The_ModeRazor]

When I was younger, I used to play a few games with my father (GTA 2, Tomb Raiders and some other). Now I'm 16, my mom doesn't care about what video games I play.

 

[walls of cetepedes]

My Dad plays Gears of War and CoD WaW with me.

My mum on the otherhand, has no clue what I play.

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

My parents dont really care, i know how to be mature with games and its not like the next time I play GTA (which i never will since it sucks) i will go on a killing spree in real life.

 

[ArcWinter]

Well, I think I could get away with gratuitous gore, like a sea of viscera, but no nudity or anything.

If I have a kid later in life, (I'm 15, by the way) I would definitely introduce him to the classics of Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3.

I just realized that today's games will eventually be considered old-school, and the old-school of today will be like ancient-preschool.

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

My Dad plays Gears of War and CoD WaW with me.

My mum on the otherhand, has no clue what I play.

I used to play SSX trickey with my dad, sadly my dad is no longer alive so my moms thinks that I play games because he used to. Shes wrong.

 

[Darth Brownie]

Got no restrictions over my 14 years of gaming (im 19) and turned out very well, i guess

They don't think I play too much violent games, they just think I got way too many games

 

[suhlEap]

my mum never minded me playing violent games when i was younger and it's had no bad effect on me. i wouldn't have a problem with my kids playing violent games if i had any.

 

[Xorghul]

They don't really care what I'm playing since I'll become an adult next year, so I'm pretty much left to my self.

 

[necromanzer52]

My parents have never given a damn about what I play.

 

[Kriptonite]

I live my mom. That being said, ever since I was a wee littl' tot, she played the music she liked(Disturbed, NIN, KoRn, etc.) and I grew up watching South Park and whatnot. She doesn't care what I watch, play, or listen to. As long as I keep my language appropriate and stay social. So as long as it stays in the media form it's in, and not in me, she's a-okay with it.

 

[delet]

I shall break it down.

Till I was about 7 I was allowed only to play E rated games.
8-9: Allowed to play T games that didn't involve killing humans. (I cleverly loop-holed my around this to play Prince of Persia: Sands of Time by stating they were sand zombies, not humans)
10-14: Any T games
15-now: M rated games

It took me many many years of hard nagging to get my mom to agree to allowing me to play M rated games, but looking back on it, I think that's a fairly reasonable time.

Now there's no real restrictions, though, so I can play freely what I wish. Joy Joy.

 

[TaborMallory]

My parents don't really care. Although, one time my dad walked in the computer room while I was playing Half Life 2 during the Ravenholm level. He said something along the lines of: "Isn't that a little too violent?"
I said: "It's certainly violent, but why does that matter?"
"Well, I don't want you to... well..."
"What? Do you think these games are messing with my head? That they negatively influence children?"
"Well... yeah."
"Dad, if media had that kind of power, we would have been dead ever since the Blues got invented."

He didn't really say anything after that.

 

[Macgyvercas]

My mom hates Halo and other violent video games. Dad doesn't give two shits what I play, as long as I get my school work done.

 

[New Troll]

While growing up, my parents never once hindered my gaming. Course there also was no GTAs or Postals back then for parents to worry about.

As a parent, I definitely don't have a problem with my children becoming gamers, though I will always try to broaden thier hobby to more than just sitting endlessly in front of the boob tube or computer screen.

As a parent, I will evaluate everything they play. I realize violence and gore are hard to avoid, and mild language is everywhere, even on TV, but strong sexuality, abuse, drugs and alcohol, language, and well anything else that might come up will weigh heavily on what I allow them to play. I will not let my 12 year old play games like GTA or Saints Row. Instead I will try and steer them towards games like The Orange Box and Dynasty Warriors. Still tons of fun but without the extreme maturity. I feel as though I'm fairly lenient, but compared to most guarians I sell games to at work, I think I am a lot more strict. Some people just don't care what thier child's baby-sitter involves.