really you let your kid play THIS

[Mister Awesome]

i'd let my kids play almost any game. not including Grand theft auto of course where you can kidnap a women, rape her, kill her, murder her family, and then get away with it by hiding in an alley for about a minute or so. it would be down right retarded to let your kids play those games. Red dead redemption isn't nearly as bad as gta but i still wouldn't let my kid play it

EDIT- jesus, i wasn't being serious, i was over exaggerating. i'm just saying that this game is pretty bad.

 

[coolman9899]

I played Resident Evil 2 at age 8. Am I a psychopath? No. Why? My parents explained to me the difference between reality and fiction. As long as that happens, what's the harm? God forbid a parent has to teach their kid something like that......

ummm i never said he was a psychopath

 

[Divine Miss Bee]

my ten-year-old brother plays these games (under our dad's or my supervision, of course), and he's just fine. i think the maturity of the child is what matters, not the age. if this 9-year-old was talking to you intelligently for any length of time, he can probably handle it.

 

[Arisato-kun]

I played Resident Evil 2 at age 8. Am I a psychopath? No. Why? My parents explained to me the difference between reality and fiction. As long as that happens, what's the harm? God forbid a parent has to teach their kid something like that......

ummm i never said he was a psychopath

And I never said you did. Just stating my views on the whole "kids playing games they shouldn't be" thing.

 

[Oomii]

I had GTA at nine. It didn't affect me. My parents were never really against violence in games/movies. I was too young to understand any of it anyway. I just used cheat codes and drove boats.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

I don't see a problem with this. My mom let me play whatever game I wanted as long as I kept my grades up and stayed out of trouble. If this kid is doing the same thing with the same deal, then there isn't a problem (unless the parent(s) can hear him talking shit, and even then, depending on the parenting, either do nothing or something).

And if I had kids, I'd let them play video games as well, provided they behaved.

 

[zohmbee]

I just turned the legal Canadian age to purchase M games last November (seventeen) and I've been playing them for twelve years. Kids nowadays are desensitized to everything these days anyway; I wouldn't worry too much. If he goes and shoots up a street, throwing chicks in his car and curb stomping old women, claiming that Saints Row influenced him, THEN you can blame video games.

 

[Mcupobob]

Hell yeah I would let my kids play those kinds of games! Though I was the kinda of kid that got to watch Jason and nightmare on elm street at age 8, and inpendence day was like my barney back then.

 

[Dango]

I played Halo at age six, Goldeneye at age three, so yeah, I can't really comment. But then again, Halo and Goldeneye aren't nearly as bad as Saint's Row, but whenever a topic like this comes up I think of Konata and her dating sims, and I think "Who really cares?"

 

[eatenbyagrue]

Personally, I would. With the caveat, of course, that they would have to understand the difference between reality and fantasy, and how imitating these things is not good in normal society, and how real adults find a lot of the bloodwhoresgunboom stuff to be incredibly juvenile.

If he can understand that (and having my genes and the genes of my lovely and smart girlfriend, he will definitely be smart enough to get it), then by all means, he has my blessing.

 

[Grathius22]

i'd let my kids play almost any game. not including Grand theft auto of course where you can kidnap a women, rape her, kill her, murder her family, and then get away with it by hiding in an alley for about a minute or so. it would be down right retarded to let your kids play those games. Red dead redemption isn't nearly as bad as gta but i still wouldn't let my kid play it

You do know you can't rape women in any of the Grand Theft Auto games, right? Also, 99% of the NPCs do not have families.

Ahem.

I'm 13 and play AO games. My parents explained to me the difference between fiction and reality, when I was like... 5. I would play Serious Sam, while sitting in my father's lap at the age of 3. Same with Fallout 1 and 2. Also, Most of the time, when kids go out shooting people, it is because they are mental, not because of video games.

On top of all this, if a parent just let their kid play the friggin' game, they wouldn't make such a big deal about it, and probably wouldn't argue with you. I have a friend, same age, who isn't allowed to watch rated R and can only play T games. He argues with his parents about it every step of the way, and if they let him play the games, he probably wouldn't play them that much, anyways.

I've beaten Red Dead three times. I've owned Dead Space. Both Bioshocks, and much more. Also, why are you worrying about a kid who is not your own. Forgive me for saying this, but you kinda rub off as a twat.

 

[AllLagNoFrag]

As a person that has played games when I was under the age of the age restriction, I am not really bothered by how kids are playing these games. Think about it, apparently the largest age group that watches porn are kids between the ages of 12-17 and with movies that have mature ratings (including nudity and violence), all you need is for someone of the legal age to accompany you (in Australia at least). With gaming, this is pretty much the same thing. I would be more bothered about a 12 year old watching a mass load of porn than playing mature rated computer games.

 

[ultrachicken]

I think that a normal person can see the barriers between fiction and reality. You're overreacting.

 

[Pegghead]

Meh, I was playing DOOM at the age of three and throughout my childhood I remember playing games like Halo and Grand Theft Auto with my father.

I say as long as there's some level of parental supervision and children are brought up knowing that what's allowed in a game isn't right in reality then it's fine by me, I was raised to have respect for others and authority and I was playing games that had me killing civillians and policemen for cash and it's not like I froth at the mouth and get off to fetishised gornography as a result.

 

[dante brevity]

I regularly teach students who A) play violent video games and B) have problems dealing with violence or bullying at school. Now let's be fair: there's no evidence of causation in that statement, but I think it's fair to say that seeing graphic depictions of violence being rewarded in games may skew kids' ideas regarding the consequences of violence. Also, there's some pretty conclusive evidence out there that says that violent video games correlate to aggressive kids.

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/03/03/study-proves-conclusively-that-violent-video-game-play-makes-more-aggressive-kids.html

Who knows what the mechanisms for this might be, but I know that my kids won't be playing violent games until their teen years, maybe 14 or so.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

Maybe his parents supervise him when he plays the game, or maybe the kids not a psycho and his parents are actually, you know, good parents and trust him.

I think you are overreacting. I played Wolfenstein, Doom, Unreal Tournament, Duke Nukem, and many other pretty violent games when I was less than 12 years old if I recall.

I never let it warp my mind, and it was a lot of fun. As long as parents talk to their kids and explain to them the difference between real world violence and media violence, if the kid isn't as satan spawn they will be alright.

Then again my parents never once talked to me about these things, yet somehow I turned out okay and didn't go on a crazy killing spree.

 

[starhaven]

GTA. gears of war 2 and saints row 2 they are the only ones i would be concerned about saints row and GTA more than gears of war i have been gaming since i was about 6 and i played the first wolfstien 3d and duke nukem as well didnt do me any harm but while 99% of us grow up fine there is always that 1% that grow up into psycopaths

 

[AgDr_ODST]

Big whoop I say let him play as long as he doesn't go online and earfuck me with his incessant profanity. rambling, stupidity and or rambling. And besides on Penn and Tellers Bullsh!t, they took a kid who was about 9 that liked Modern Warfare shoot an M4(or something close in look to it) HE CRIED AFTER WORD!!! that aught tell ya something. And besides that its on the parents counscience if "little billy" goes psycho and hurts or kills one of his classmates even if they get away with pointing the finger at videogames

 

[Blueruler182]

I say let them play it UNDER SUPERVISION. If the parents play with them it an turn into a valuable life experience and they can teach them right from wrong with visual aids. If the parents just ignore it and let him play it, that's when it turns into a problem.

But, yes, it's a little young to be playing certain games. I've seen people do worse to their kids, though.

 

[twistedmic]

For the most part I think that kids that young shouldn't be playing games like GTA, Saint's Row or COD4 and on. Not only are they far more graphically violent than earlier M-rated games (DOOM, Duke Nuke-em etc) but most of those games the OP listed seem to glorify pure sociopathic behavior (especially Saint's Row 2). However, if the games are played with adult supervision and the kids fully understand the difference between games and reality, and as long as they don't play the games excessively then it should be fine.