Would you let YOUR kids play?

[ottenni]

Depends on the child. being a gamer myself (obviously). I would probably be able to judge how they would cope from having them watch me game. And of course the mothers opinion would matter as well. I know my old English teacher would get in trouble with his wife for having his kids watch him play left 4 dead.

 

[NOT WILL]

Only T until the youngest is 13

 

[HentMas]

if they ever lay hands on my pc, my xbox, my ps3 or my wii, I WILL PUNISH THEM

so no, no games for them THEY ARE ALL MINE!!!

 

[OpiateChicken]

Someone else here said T games whenever, and M & online games in high school. I think that's pretty reasonable, but I would still play them myself beforehand, or at least watch trailers and read reviews, while they're not in high school yet.

Personally I always resented my parents for not letting me play T games until I was 13, and M games until I was 17 (although I bought some on my own at 15 and 16 when I didn't get ID'd at the store). Not that I really cared about all the violence or whatever, it's just that all my friends were playing them, and talked about them at school, and I just felt pretty left out of discussions (not just about games, but TV and movies too--I wasn't allowed to watch the Simpsons, Jaws, Godzilla or the Excorcist until I was 17, although I did anyway), and my mom never let me go over to their houses if she knew we would be playing games above our age rating.

I would never want my kid to be excluded like that, and my parents were definitely over-protective. I lived a quite sheltered childhood, and didn't experience a lot of stuff my friends did or saw, and as a result I still am quite isolated as an adult. I'm not blaming my parents for my isolation now directly, just saying that I was unable to join social groups at a young age where I could have developed more social skills early on.

As a side note, my parents (my mom, at least) were devout Christians and I went to church every sunday until I was 15, when I threatened to run the hell away if they made me go anymore. Best thing I ever did.

 

[Rooster893]

Of course. They should know the difference real life and pixels.

 

[what.twitch]

Well, it really depends on the game. I mean, when I was a kid, I sat and watched my parents play Diablo and Diablo II, then played it myself. Both are M rated games. But, generally, I would have to play first and then go from there.

 

[silver wolf009]

anything they want IF they prove to me they can keep it and their world seperated

 

[XenoLair]

Why not? Society and your rules.. pah... go bother fancy pants people. If I knew my kids know that its only a game, meant to be played for fun - why not. I'd warn them there's lots of blood in the game or sex or whatever and ask them if they are OK with it. if I knew they can handle it well. If you're not gonna let you kids watch Letter's from Iwo Jima than don't them allow them to play cod.

anything they want IF they prove to me they can keep it and their world seperated

This is exactly what I mean.

 

[0HP]

First note I'm talking about young kids, like 5-8. I've seen far too many of them online in mature games they have NO business playing.

If my kid's too young, I'm not going to explain sex to them. End of story. I'm sure even with Mass Effect's mild sex scene, my kid (if they're young) would wonder what they were doing.
Now, honestly, the thing with Jack and Shephard in ME2 is not making love, in fact, you can't really argue that there's a love connection between Shephard and Jack, Jack just wants to fuck, put bluntly. If my kid's a bit older and asks about sex in Mass Effect, I'll talk about it.

You're not going to explain sex to your children? Why is it that sex suddenly becomes an acceptable topic once we reach a certain age? Even if you kids don't really "get it" before puberty, you can still teach them, which will reduce their tension and fear around the subject and improve their social tractability.

In Halo, the child's not shooting people. You don't shoot people in Halo, you shoot aliens. Believe it or not, there is a difference. I'd rather my kid grow up shooting aliens than people. I know a few people who let their kids play alien shooting games when they're young, but not games like Modern Warfare.

No. There's no difference. Would you let your kids play Sonic? And, if you did, would you be surprised to learn that they were identifying with a character who isn't human? The fact that sonic is a mutant blue hedgehog doesn't take away his characterization. It's characterization that taps into our humanity.

Games like Halo and Modern Warfare 2 eliminate characterization. The sentient creatures (aliens, humans, whatever) are un-characterized. Even the hero is uncharacterized. The acts of murder that they portray, then, cease to be criminal. Playing through either of these games feels more like sanitizing the kitchen bench then genociding hundreds of people with real lives.

How do you think the Columbine kids felt while gunning people down? Did then believe that their targets were complex and real, or did they simply reduce them to targets in a shooting gallery ala Halo.

(For the record: I'm NOT saying that there's a causal connection between violence and videogames, but I am saying that there's a cultural connection between faceless heoism and faceless acts of violence.)

 

[Cheesus333]

I would not let my kid play an M-rated game until they are about...15.
And if they asked to, I'd play them a sound clip of the typical younger kid online, give them a stern look, and be done with it.
The auditory rape should persuade them to stop asking.

"Dad, can I go online now?"
"Have your balls dropped?"
"...No"
"Piss off, squealer."

Ah, happy families...

 

[0HP]

One more thing: The best part of Modern Warfare 2 was "No Russian." It was violent the way violence should be: hectic, confusing, sick, and disturbing. That's the kind of segment I WANT my kids to play. "Here you go, kids. Learn this."

Exposing your kids to video games means taking them seriously as an art form. And art has, above all, the ability to provoke, not simply entertain.

 

[SextusMaximus]

My parents let me play 18+ games that they feel are suitable for my level of maturity that they have watched and calculated. If my parents don't let me buy a game because of say, sex - I don't argue with them, I respect their decision or try to elaborate upon it. Then when I realise I'm not getting it, I thank them for looking at it for me.

Then my parents will allow me to play games such as L4D and L4D2 which have tremendous amounts of violence in them. Are they bad parents then?

 

[FinalHeart95]

Depends. I'm sure there are some M rated games that are tamer than T rated games. (looking at you Halo 3)

Personally, I'd actually look up a game my kid wants before buying it.

 

[Therumancer]

Well, most of the games on that list are ones I would not let them play myself. The "M" rating exists for a reason. In many cases it's not the sex or violence, but an issue of seperating fantasy from reality, and potentially taking away a message from them that they shouldn't.

The exceptions being things like "Mass Effect" and maybe "Dead Or Alive". When it comes to Mass Effect the sex scenes aren't all that impressive to begin with, and frankly I figure anyone capable of getting that far at least has some conception of romance. In general I don't think what is going on there is much worse the way it's portrayed than all the "Snogging" in the Harry Potter franchise, or the outfit they put Pricess Leia in for
the palace scenes in "Return Of The Jedi". In both cases I feel those games were "over rated" as I've mentioned in other threads and sort of diluting what the "M" rating should be being used for. Nothing I've seen in either of those games struck me as being anything that couldn't get into a properly rated PG-13 movie.

My thoughts on Dead Or Alive, even the "Xtreme Beach Volleyball" games are simply that anyone who is going to be attracted to that/is capable of picking it up, is going to be at the age where they would be sneaking playboys anyway. While not popular anymore there used to be a whole genere of "bikini movies" (or beach movies to some) aimed at teenagers. Not to mention other more lighthearted teen experience movies like "Porky's" or "American Pie".


Of course in my case I'm not perfect, this is my opinion as a parent. I'd have to deal with the repercussions if I was wrong IF I had kids. I do feel there is such a thing as being overprotective though.

For a lot of the other games mentioned, well yes... I have problems with the crime games and would not want to deal with the nightmares from the horror games. With the rest, as I said, if they can figure it out and find it tittilating then they are already there. Sure it might be awkward to try and explain some of it to a very young child, but honestly I do not think a very young child could actually get that far through Mass Effect, or would notice much in "Dead Or Alive" other than it was a fighting game.... and lets be honest, while the graphics are pretty good fighting games have ALWAYS been known for the babes. Characters like Chun Li and Cammy became icons for a reason, Dead Or Alive just decided to cash in on that aspect of things more directly than most.

 

[BluenetteDiviner]

I'd play them first to see whether they were appropriate for them. As my dad did with me when I wasn't a teenager, as long as there's no explicit sexual content, I can play/watch it. Horror was never a big thing for me, as I take after my dad and have never really been scared by horror movies/games. So for something scary, i'd start them off on something mild first, and work my way up to find their limit, then judge what they can play from that.

 

[Danpascooch]

Me as a father ^

Seriously though, My rule: E and E10+ till you're 8, then Teen till you're 13, then M till you die.

AO, never.

Personally, I'm not going to spend my time second guessing the ESRB, I'm willing to bet my child's innocence on the fact that there is no hardcore gay sex in an E title.

Plus, I've never been a believer in sheltering people from mature themes.

 

[Phase_9]

Depends on their age, and on the content of the game, not necessarily the rating. We all know of a few M games that should have been Teen or AO, and alot of Teen games that should have been Mature or E. I would play the game through first and see, not just trust the ESRB to know what I want for my children.

 

[teisjm]

If i got a kid, i would let them play anything that didn't scare them too much. My parents have never said i couldn't play any specific games, but then again, i'm 21 now, so when i was little graphics wasn't that good so that may have had something to do with it.

I guess i would try to raise them to haev good taste in games, and not be scared of games, so we could play the same games... i'd have my own little army gamers, and we could play co-op games, and i could actually have something in common with them even and though they were small kids.

I would train them hard, like not letting them have any candy untill their kill/death ratio is over 1.

Oh and i would raise them to act right when playing online... no mic screaming, no rage-
quitting in team games and stuff like that.

But yeah, as long as it didn't cause them to be to scared to sleep at night they could play zombie games and GTA and stuff like that.
I'm a firm beliver that as long as you're raising your kids proberbly (don't ask me how, i'm not a daddy) they can easily distinguish between video-game violence and real life, so i don't think games causes real life violence.

 

[GreatVladmir]

anything they want IF they prove to me they can keep it and their world seperated

Only sensible answer.

Seriously, why are all people terrfied that if a kid plays GTA they will go out, hijack a car, kill a police man and run over every person form here to the south pole? If your kid has trouble diciding what is reality and what is imagination, I'd be more thinking, "What mental home will be best for the fuckin loon." insted of "What age-ratings of games should I let my nut-job kid play." Why hold them back, my parents knew that, if they held sommit back, I'd want it more, so when they got Unreal Tournament, they let me play, full gore n all, my dad brought Half-Life, I played that too and it has done nothing wrong to me. So if you hold back, be prepaird for your kids to illegaly download them, or get there hands on them by some other means.

 

[AstylahAthrys]

I think it all depends on the child. Of course I would let my children play games like Mario and the Lego games at any age, but when it comes to moving up to M rated games, I think it really depends on how mature the child is. When I was 12, I showed maturity when exposed to violence and sex in other forms of media so when I said I wanted Halo, my Mom decided it was okay. However, my oldest sister was very immature and my mother had to cut off things like the Simpsons because when she would hear stuff she would repeat it, even in her early adolescence. So, yeah, it depends on their maturity when they'll be able to play more violent games.