Story Time. Are you serious?(Too Young?)

[orangecharger]

Yeah I don't really remember my game titles being restricted as a kid. I had NES / SNES / PS1 / PS2 / XBOX 360 in that order throughout my life, and I don't ever remember having my hand slapped for trying to buy something I wasn't allowed. I also played your Doom and Quake style games on PC. Probably more graphic than anything Nintendo was prepared to offer.

As gamers we are quick to jump to blame all parents for buying games for the future news at 6 fucked up children who play video games. To me video games is like a symptom of anti-social behavior rather than the cause. In the extremely small sample size (kids who go nuts and play video games vs. kids who don't go nuts and play video games) you would think the entire argument would be laughed at.

It is highly likely that those kids that do go nuts, have other issues at home that are larger than being exposed to violent video games. Parents who are attentive know their kids and know what they can handle.

By crying wolf over this woman, we are inadvertently lending credence to the argument that violent video game exposure makes children violent. If you don't believe the argument than who cares what game she bought her kid?

 

[Delock]

The fact that your parents wouldn't let you watch the Simpsons when you were 8 explains a lot.

It's perfectly fine to me.
I played GTA 3 when I was 8, I watched rated R movies even before I was 8 and the reason my parents let me do those things is because they knew I could handle it.
Besides, shielding kids from rated R stuff does more harm than good in the long run.

Or you were just mature for a child. This is why parents have to decide what they feel is appropriate for their own childern. They don't want them to play games like Heavy Rain (Note: I'm using this example more for the fact that the violence in this is extremely cringworthy even for me at points, rather than just God of War where it's just bloody), that's their decision.

And no, shielding isn't automatically a bad thing. It only screws a kid over when it goes into the realm of sheltering, ie when you're shielding the kid completely rather than slowly allowing them more access. Shielding actually can do some good as you allow a child to complete stages in their development (physically, psychologically, and sociologically) before exposting them to things that it takes the full scope of further developments to grasp at (sort of how most normal people think that bloody ultraviolence isn't anything more than chuckleworthy at best but kids will roar with laughter because they only really assume violence to be with schadenfruede).

 

[jumjalalabash]

Its a game. The parent clearly knows this and I really doubt the kid will try to find zombies to chainsaw to death after playing it.

 

[joshuaayt]

Well, how else is she going to complain about violent video games? If she hasn't seen any disgusting, evil, corrupting games, she won't be able to ignorantly claim that they are at fault for anything that goes wrong with her children.

 

[InsanityBaronOfAtrocity]

Yeah can't see the problem here. My parents never paid any attention to age ratings on things like games or films. They trusted me and realised I wasn't a little sociopath. Never did me any harm. Performed incredibly well at school, long term loving girlfriend and a decent ish job. I'm certain games only have a negative effect if you're already mental. For kids who can distinguish between what's real and what's on the screen there's no issue.

 

[Hosker]

I played violent videogames all the time when I was younger. It really doesn't matter.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Some parents believe that their children are mature oddly enough... you know you're making a big deal out of nothing, it's extremely common to find parents who trust their kids.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

Seriously? you offer a TL;DR summary for 8 friggin lines of text?? I wouldnt want anyone to discuss with me who isnt able to read eight lines of text.

To topic. I understand your reaction, also that you havent tried to talk to her, reaction would be clearly "dont tell my how i have to raise my kids!" yelling. I know that kind of bull, was tutoring more than enough worthless little brats myself.
But at some points thats not that a huge case here. when i was a kid i tried to see as much horrorstuff as i can secretly. Sneaking down to the living room sitting an inch away of the screen at nights because i had to turn down the sound.
Or smuggling italian Zombie Videotapes i got at the flea market to a friends place, whose parents went away a lot.

A little horror wont kill kids, as long its the good "we kill da monster" horror, and not the "humans are the real monsters" torture stuff.
Horrormovies/Games have a purpose, facing your elemental fears, thats not the worst thing on earth.

 

[Zhukov]

When I was 8-10 years old I would have loved Dead Rising 2.

Just sayin'.

 

[Rayansaki]

My parents never filtered the games I could play when I was young, although there was nothing quite as graphic as Dead Rising2 when I was 9 or 10, but I don't necessarily see it as a bad thing. I loved GTA2 and Carmageddon 2 when I was like 10, and I sort of built a resistance to this kind of violence, and it never had an effect on me.

Parents shielding kids from those games, with kids getting them elsewhere without parents supervision would be worse in my opinion, so if the parents know what the games are about, and still allow their kids to play them, thats fine to me.

For anyone that asks, I'm 21 now.

 

[SultanP]

I think too much is being made of it. Some kids can handle more mature content, some can't. And when it's a parent who seems so knowledgeable in her child's hobby, I think she would also know her kid well enough to know if he can handle it or not. First game I got a hold of myself was Grand Theft Auto, and I was very young then too. Bought it from a brother's friend with my pocket money. I think it's nice to hear of someone who doesn't coddle their child as much as people generally do today.

 

[TheComedown]

I think it would be a very informative exercise to discover if there is a correlation between the age of the person and the attitudes towards video game censorship. Skimming over the profiles in this thread it seems most of the 'pro' statements are coming from people under the age of 20.

This is an interesting idea, should also include whether or not they where set free or had limits put in place by the parents. Would make for an interesting study.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I couldn't watch robo-cop till i was 13 >_>

Lotr at 14.
i thought it was some kind of stupid drama before that xD.

Heck, I wasn't even allowed to watch Tremors till I was 12.

 

[Tasachan]

I still get ID'ed buying 18+ videogames (at 22), but when a parent buys it with the kid right there, the cashier doesn't give a second glance. Shouldn't they maybe give a warning? Point out that its meant for older people?

My parents didn't filter anything I watched or played. Growing up on the NES/SNES/N64 meant there wasn't a lot of violent games that we new about, we stuck mostly to Mario stuff. But when I got older, and my younger brother was playing GTA San Andreas, I pointed out to my mother what the game was all about. She seemed surprised, but didn't do anything about it.

So, I think that in some ways it is that parents don't really know what a M rating entails, while others just don't care - as long as the videogame keeps the kids busy for a few hours, for them it doesn't matter.

 

[AngryMongoose]

It's fair to say that, given the lack of rigorous evidence connecting violent media and real-life violence, and a fair bit debunking it, that there are parents out there who have made the reasonable and informed decision that buying their children violent games won't affect them.

Getting 2 high-priced new games from a single person on your birthday? Damn rich kids!

 

[DuelLadyS]

If she had enough sense to know the game's titles and content off the top of her head, I imagine she knows if it's suitable for her boy. (Not that the box cover really hides the content, but still...)

Several year back, I once let a 6-year old I babysat play Zone of the Enders. It's rated teen, opens with a group of kids getting crushed to death, and eals with their friend reluctantly piloting a mech and killing folks. My reasoning? All this content takes place in skippable cutscenes. He never watched cutscenes. Sans cutscenes, the game becomes a simple robot beat-em-up no more violent than any other game he had.

Provided the kids weren't terrorizing the store, they're probably mature enough to handle it. And if they weren't, chances are mom would have been pissed if you pointed out the rating- some folks just don't want to be forced to parent.

 

[zhemis]

Any parent that doesn't understand any rating should be considered an idiot. A lot of parents are total retards. I think it stems from not being able to do something when we were a kid and not wanting to prevent our kids from doing whatever it is they want to do.

We grew up with movie ratings, we get the idea. The video game rating system isn't so mysterious.

I don't think my own refusal to buy my kids violent video games has anything to do with popular misconception that video games cause real life problems. I don't subscribe to that misconception.

I've never considered parenting to be a matter of finding things "that won't affect them" and moreso about finding things that are best for them.