M rated games to kids... rant/opinions wanted

Mindl3ss

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Working at a retail gaming store, I see this a lot. And, I got to say, it kind of bothers me.

We have a policy (someone said it's a law) that you have to be 17 to buy an M rated game, or be accompanied by an adult. That's great.

My problem is, when the little 10 year olds (and often times much younger) come in with their parents, go straight to the Grand Theft Auto, or something similar.

We (well, I) always make it a point to say "Are you okay with them buying this game? It's rated M for extreme violence, language, drug use, sexual situations and such. Every few seconds you hear the F-bomb, you can have sex with hookers, and kill anyone you want"
That's usually the description for GTA... for Fable II it's more "You can have relations, sacrifice your wife/husband, get STDs..." and so on.

Sadly, only sometimes does that parent say "Oh, thanks for telling me. Now, go pick out something different"... most of the time it's "Oh, they have already played it" (doesen't make it right) or, "Oh, it's nothing they don't see at home anyway" (CPS anyone?)...

it just makes me angry... because then people go bitch about how bad things are out there, and how some people say video games contribute...

well... anyway... </rant>

I agree it CAN go on a "per child" basis, if one is wise beyond their years or something... but seriously?

what are your opinions?
 
My son is about to turn 10. I dont let him play any of those games. Most of his friends are talking about Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, etc. I think the most violent game my son is allowed to play is Star Wars Battlefront. I know he is gonna end up playing these games before 17 of course. But I cant see letting kids this young playing those games. My sister in law lets her sons play call of duty and they are 7 and 5. All they talk about is shooting people in the head. Great way to raise them.

Working at a retail gaming store, I see this a lot. And, I got to say, it kind of bothers me.

We have a policy (someone said it's a law) that you have to be 17 to buy an M rated game, or be accompanied by an adult. That's great.

My problem is, when the little 10 year olds (and often times much younger) come in with their parents, go straight to the Grand Theft Auto, or something similar.

We (well, I) always make it a point to say "Are you okay with them buying this game? It's rated M for extreme violence, language, drug use, sexual situations and such. Every few seconds you hear the F-bomb, you can have sex with hookers, and kill anyone you want"
That's usually the description for GTA... for Fable II it's more "You can have relations, sacrifice your wife/husband, get STDs..." and so on.

Sadly, only sometimes does that parent say "Oh, thanks for telling me. Now, go pick out something different"... most of the time it's "Oh, they have already played it" (doesen't make it right) or, "Oh, it's nothing they don't see at home anyway" (CPS anyone?)...

it just makes me angry... because then people go bitch about how bad things are out there, and how some people say video games contribute...

well... anyway... </rant>

I agree it CAN go on a "per child" basis, if one is wise beyond their years or something... but seriously?

what are your opinions?
 
One of my biggest peaves is when they say something like "well, they have already played it at their friends house"...

that's when I say "well, then they won't be going back to that friends house"

of course, I don't have kids yet... I hope I can keep up on the high standards I was raised with, and want to raise my kids with
 
I will say it is a little hard to keep him away from alot of it. Especially when his friends and everyone else play these sorts of games. I just stay on top of it. I think it should be decided on a kid by kid basis. Some kids can understand the differences of reality of games, some have troubles.

I know I would be mad if someone got him a game like that though. For his bdays and christmas, I always tell people to get him gift cards instrad of actual games so we can go with him and pick them out.
 
Yup pretty sick hey...
Just go to wal mart! It attracts some of each cities best. I go for the show.
Wal creatures every time. Guaranteed you will see a strung out fat or anorexic mother yelling at their 3 year old kid taking out their problems on them. Or even better, a wal mart employee approaching a 2-4 year old saying, "DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU MOM IS"...

And now cases of two year olds smoking!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKv7IMXC-0s&feature=related

I bet you the Graffiti all over the attention whores car I seen yesterday could be the result of gta playing at the age of 7 with the lack of parenting and bad gangster movies, music vids... Had spray paint of wonderful quotes like "GET MONEY" "FUCK BITCHES" & other obscenities. Do I blame the game? NO... Do I blame the absent parent to talk with their child about what they just seen in the game? Yes! The parent is either not there, or teaches using horrible childish example by condoning it, laughing, or ignoring it.

1412.jpg
 
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I hear all the time about undercover teens who test the sales clerk trying to buy beer or smokes, why is this not happening with movies, music & games?

Sadly, parents today are way too laid back and way too trusting of their kids. Personally I think they grew up listening to mature music, watching mature movies and so on (so did I), but they did it without the parents knowing (same here), but they are more open with their kids now days because they want to be the "cool" parents, thats where I differ. My daughter is 12 and is probably the only kid in her school that dosent have a cell phone, dosent get to watch Family Guy or South Park, and dosent play GTA or anything along those lines, and I think its worth it, she has friends over and its unbelieveable how messed up or misbehaved some of them are (Alli is usually very well behaved). MK is the most mature game I let her play and thats just recently (and shes not much into it anyway, she much prefers Tekken & Virtua Fighter). Sue is starting to introduce her to horror movies, which I'm still on the fence about, but to be honest I was watching horror flicks (mainly Friday the 13th) with my brother before I even turned 10.
 
I will say it is a little hard to keep him away from alot of it. Especially when his friends and everyone else play these sorts of games. I just stay on top of it. I think it should be decided on a kid by kid basis. Some kids can understand the differences of reality of games, some have troubles.


Your right on target man. It's kind of scary to think what some kids will become one day...
 
I hear all the time about undercover teens who test the sales clerk trying to buy beer or smokes, why is this not happening with movies, music & games?

Sadly, parents today are way too laid back and way too trusting of their kids. Personally I think they grew up listening to mature music, watching mature movies and so on (so did I), but they did it without the parents knowing (same here), but they are more open with their kids now days because they want to be the "cool" parents, thats where I differ. My daughter is 12 and is probably the only kid in her school that dosent have a cell phone, dosent get to watch Family Guy or South Park, and dosent play GTA or anything along those lines, and I think its worth it, she has friends over and its unbelieveable how messed up or misbehaved some of them are (Alli is usually very well behaved). MK is the most mature game I let her play and thats just recently (and shes not much into it anyway, she much prefers Tekken & Virtua Fighter). Sue is starting to introduce her to horror movies, which I'm still on the fence about, but to be honest I was watching horror flicks (mainly Friday the 13th) with my brother before I even turned 10.

That's awesome... a 12 year old doesen't need a cell phone... maybe an emergency one, that you hold on to, but hand out in specific situations...

When I was younger, I ended up with a Wolfenstein 3D for the PC. My mom asked my dad to play it before I got to. His response was "It's okay, it's just killing Nazi's"... will I let my kid play it? maybe, depends on how they handle other things, I guess.
 
Just go to wal mart! It attracts some of each cities best. I go for the show.
Wal creatures every time. Guaranteed you will see a strung out fat or anorexic mother yelling at their 3 year old kid taking out their problems on them. Or even better, a wal mart employee approaching a 2-4 year old saying, "DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU MOM IS"...

At the risk of derailing the thread...

The most stunning thing I've ever seen in a Wal-Mart was a morbidly obese woman riding one of the courtesy motorized carts, and the basket on the cart was overflowing with bags of fun-sized candy bars. :( I think I found the solution to her problem...
 
its all about the parents, not the movies, games, music whatever..


let me ask you something, what the fawk was hitler listening to? was he playing GTA? no.
nuff said


and yeah fuk walmart and it creatures
 
its all about the parents, not the movies, games, music whatever..


let me ask you something, what the fawk was hitler listening to? was he playing GTA? no.
nuff said


and yeah fuk walmart and it creatures

The main part of my rant is how the parents are handling it. I think kids can play M rated titles and turn out fine, and also not play them and end up F-ed up.

I'm not pissed at the kids for playing the games, I'm pissed at the parents for saying stuff like "Oh, they see/hear it every day at home anyway"

so, that being said, they are telling me their kids see people getting killed, prostitution, alcohol/drug abuse, and hear tons of swearing on a daily basis from them. THAT's a great way to raise your kids
 
At the risk of derailing the thread...

The most stunning thing I've ever seen in a Wal-Mart was a morbidly obese woman riding one of the courtesy motorized carts, and the basket on the cart was overflowing with bags of fun-sized candy bars. :( I think I found the solution to her problem...

also... HAHAHAHAHA and :(:(:(... that's hillariously sad...
 
The main part of my rant is how the parents are handling it. I think kids can play M rated titles and turn out fine, and also not play them and end up F-ed up.

Agreed there. I was 6 when Wolfenstein came out and have played every violent videogame since. Carmageddon, Doom, Quake, Half-Life, Turok, and Grand Theft Auto. Yeah I loved the games and was into the shooting, mayhem, etc. but my parents always made sure that I knew that what I was playing was pretty racy which kept things in perspective. When things got as realistic as CounterStrike and Call of Duty it really hit me that these are situations that people actually go through and I feel like that should be kept in mind.

Making sure they keep reality in check is a big part of the responsibility of the parent I believe. There's a difference between living a violent game and just playing/enjoying it.
 
unless your kid literaly lives under a rock hes going to be exposed to it. the problem is the kids who cant distinguish between fake and/or comedy and real life.

i grew up playing metal gear and the GTA's. i didnt see anything there that wasnt in the movies 20 years earlier. its entertainment.
 
I really hate it when they play the online games (Bad Company 2 for example) and all you hear is this high pitched whiney voice coming from someone whose testicles haven't dropped yet..... That I hate...
 
Many many moons ago I worked at a Blockbuster. I remember one evening a mother came in with three young teenage boys and wanted to rent the latest GTA game. I took it upon myself to tell the mother about the adult nature of the game. She replied that her kids were very mature and could handle it. Funny thing was that as they were leaving the security sensor by the door went off. Apparently the boys were trying to steal a bunch of stuff while mom was checking out. Nice…..
 
I really hate it when they play the online games (Bad Company 2 for example) and all you hear is this high pitched whiney voice coming from someone whose testicles haven't dropped yet..... That I hate...

Yeah, and the words that are coming out of their mouth are alwasy foul... then you hear in the background "your macaroni is done" and they yell something like "shut the hell up, I'm playing a game"

Many many moons ago I worked at a Blockbuster. I remember one evening a mother came in with three young teenage boys and wanted to rent the latest GTA game. I took it upon myself to tell the mother about the adult nature of the game. She replied that her kids were very mature and could handle it. Funny thing was that as they were leaving the security sensor by the door went off. Apparently the boys were trying to steal a bunch of stuff while mom was checking out. Nice…..

Wow... that's just, wow.
 
what are your opinions?

We own both a Wii and an Xbox360 (as far as the new consoles go) in our home but definitely have limits as to daily game playing and whatnot. Basically, no games during the school week outside of special situations and only limited to 2 hours per day on the weekend unless the kids have earned more time. With that said, all of the games for the Wii are pretty family friendly as that is just the nature of the system. But when my son received his Xbox360 for his birthday a couple years back we started allowing him some rated M games that he was interested in... basically the ones that his friends had at their houses (i.e. Halo3, Mortal Kombat vs. Marvel, etc.). From the very beginning we told Chris, our now 10 year old son, that these games could be taken away at any time if they started affecting his attitude. After awhile he began acting out in a more violent manner, spending more time walking around with "guns" while not playing the video games and "shooting" his siblings. Another friend of his who was not allowed rated M games was only allowed limited interaction with him because his parents did not like this type of play. It just got to the point that it really was too much for a kid his age. So we pulled him aside and took all of the rated T and M games that he had and I took him into a local used game store a buddy of mine owns and we traded them all in for other games. At first he was really upset that we made him get rid of those games but after not more than 24 hours he didn't care anymore... and not surprisingly, his attitude also started to change.

So no... we do not allow violent video games in our home. We do allow the Lego games (i.e. Lego Star Wars, etc) but those are the only real rated T games we let them play. And it really has made a world of difference in our kids' attitudes.


(edit) I just spent a minute reading some more of the replies. I'm not saying 100% that violent video games lead to violent kids. That really isn't always true. I grew up playing Mortal Kombat, Wolfenstein, etc and I turned out fine. :) But, I do feel like some kids (i.e. my son) are more impressionable to these forms of entertainment than other kids are. We are raising our children to try to live as positive a life as possible. Reduce the negative crap in their lives (i.e. these games, violent movies, adult themed media, etc) and it does directly effect their outlook on life. Our children are not sheltered by any means... they just don't need to have this influence in their homes. If they pick it up elsewhere, so be it... but our home should be a safe place.
 
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We own both a Wii and an Xbox360 (as far as the new consoles go) in our home but definitely have limits as to daily game playing and whatnot. Basically, no games during the school week outside of special situations and only limited to 2 hours per day on the weekend unless the kids have earned more time. With that said, all of the games for the Wii are pretty family friendly as that is just the nature of the system. But when my son received his Xbox360 for his birthday a couple years back we started allowing him some rated M games that he was interested in... basically the ones that his friends had at their houses (i.e. Halo3, Mortal Kombat vs. Marvel, etc.). From the very beginning we told Chris, our now 10 year old son, that these games could be taken away at any time if they started affecting his attitude. After awhile he began acting out in a more violent manner, spending more time walking around with "guns" while not playing the video games and "shooting" his siblings. Another friend of his who was not allowed rated M games was only allowed limited interaction with him because his parents did not like this type of play. It just got to the point that it really was too much for a kid his age. So we pulled him aside and took all of the rated T and M games that he had and I took him into a local used game store a buddy of mine owns and we traded them all in for other games. At first he was really upset that we made him get rid of those games but after not more than 24 hours he didn't care anymore... and not surprisingly, his attitude also started to change.

So no... we do not allow violent video games in our home. We do allow the Lego games (i.e. Lego Star Wars, etc) but those are the only real rated T games we let them play. And it really has made a world of difference in our kids' attitudes.


(edit) I just spent a minute reading some more of the replies. I'm not saying 100% that violent video games lead to violent kids. That really isn't always true. I grew up playing Mortal Kombat, Wolfenstein, etc and I turned out fine. :) But, I do feel like some kids (i.e. my son) are more impressionable to these forms of entertainment than other kids are. We are raising our children to try to live as positive a life as possible. Reduce the negative crap in their lives (i.e. these games, violent movies, adult themed media, etc) and it does directly effect their outlook on life. Our children are not sheltered by any means... they just don't need to have this influence in their homes. If they pick it up elsewhere, so be it... but our home should be a safe place.

That's an excellent example.

And for your last line, I agree too. I think if you have good values at home, then the kids will be more likely to ignore other stuff when they are out at other places. You can't control what happens at other places all the time, but you can at home.
 
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