Why Do Parents Let Their Kids Play Games Rated Mature?

[Biggles7268]

Seriously the game is rated M for a reason. I think I'm mostly annoyed because I hate joining a multiplayer match or coop game with a friggin 12 year old. I naively hope that since i'm playing a game meant for adults I'll be able to play with people who have at least a little maturity. Nope denied (squeaky voice) "Dude i'm goona roxor joo wit my mad skillzzzz yo shizzle." FUCKING HELL your 12 go play viva friggin pinata you little shit.

[woodsmoke]

I feel for you. There is really nothing worse than a pre-pubescent l33t kiddie venting his inferiority complex through video games.

 

Unfortunately, there seems to be a direct proportion between those parents who think T.V. makes a great babysitter and those who don't bother to check what the rating on a game is.

[Amethyst]

Because the vast majority of parents are clueless about video games and think "oh, it's just a video game, how bad could it be?" They don't play them, so they don't know. Heck, I'm an adult and there are certain games that I won't get.

[Carolyn the Red]

Seriously the game is rated M for a reason. I think I'm mostly annoyed because I hate joining a multiplayer match or coop game with a friggin 12 year old. I naively hope that since i'm playing a game meant for adults I'll be able to play with people who have at least a little maturity. Nope denied (squeaky voice) "Dude i'm goona roxor joo wit my mad skillzzzz yo shizzle." FUCKING HELL your 12 go play viva friggin pinata you little shit.

 

Heh, you do know there are some chronological adults who act like that too. I think I've worked with a few...

[PaulQ]

It is entirely possible that the parents are unaware that their child is playing such a game. At the local flea market, I saw kids buying all manner of games, even ones rated "M" from the flea market vendors who really quite honestly don't give a crap. The prices of such games would fall within the range of what you'd expect their allowance to be. They bring it home, put it on the computer, and if a parent asks, all the kid will say is that it's a videogame; bending the truth to make the parents believe it's another Pokemon or something. Parents can't keep a 24 hour watch on their kids; they need to do other things, so they "Check up" on them once in a while and see them playing a game on the computer. Perfectly normal.

 

The solution to your problem is to track down the IP number of the offending underage player, and send a letter or e-mail to the actual owner of the account to let them know their kid is playing games made for an adult. I cannot think of a better way to get back at the little snot-nosed brats.

[Kelli]

Never been into gaming since I was about 17. I do like flight simulator. I used to fly a twin Beech to different cities and after landing do research on the web about that city and all the local attractions. That's as game-geek as I get.

 

I'd expect 12 year olds to get into even the Mature rated games, quite honestly. After a certain point in life the interest in such things begins to wane...

[Ramen666]

Ratings are their for a reason, I guess the orginal poster is talking about xbox live and I bet the game he is talking about is Halo 2/ Gears of War. Anyway the point is valid but does this give the right to have the government control it and enforce it? Do you want politicians deciding whats right and wrong. This is a vary touchy subject but the ratings are their just for suggested age. If the parent does not care that is their own fault and no one elses. The parents were not ressponsible enough therfore their is no pity.

[Dhampir]

Amazing how parents are the stewards of their children's development, and yet someone else is ALWAYS to blame for said children being exposed to something those parents find distasteful or harmful.

 

"I can't always monitor what my kid's watching or playing-- Its not my fault grown ass men and women want to play games that could potentially (but probably won't) warp kids minds!" Who the fuck said you have to always monitor them, dopes? Just periodically check their shit, and you should be fine. I've no sympathy for idiots that foist their responsibility and shovel blame onto people and things that have no obligation to look out for their interests.

 

"...But don't blame me when little Eric jumps off of the terrace, you shoulda' been watchin' him, apparently, you ain't parents." ~Slim Shady~

[The Sage Nabooru]

Oh my God. I used to work in the electronics department. These people make me sick.

 

First of all, there's the group that can't imagine how animated bloodsport could have a negative effect on 7-year-old Junior's behavior. C'mon, it's just a game! Once I had a kid no older than third grade, come up to me and eagerly ask me if we had The Deer Hunter on DVD. WHAT THE FUCK?! A nine-year-old kid shouldn't even know The Deer Hunter exists, for chrissakes.

 

Then there's the pushover group, the ones that say, "Billy, I don't like you playing that game," and Billy says "But Mom, if you don't buy it for me I'll throw a temper tantrum and whine and act like a little spoiled shit," and Mom will do anything to avoid that, so she buys it.

 

And lastly, the dumbass group. I once got in an argument online with a woman who complained about how the government allowed the release of violent video games which she could unwittingly buy for her children. I had trouble understanding how that could happen, and she put forth as an example the Grand Theft Auto game, which looks cartoony on the front cover so how was she to know any better? I suggested she learn to read so she could see what the title and rating was, and then she countered that it just took way too long to check over every game she buys for her kids (kind of like how it takes way too long to see if he's drinking out of the milk jug or bleach bottle). I mean, that's like, three or four whole seconds of her valuable time.

[Dhampir]

First of all, there's the group that can't imagine how animated bloodsport could have a negative effect on 7-year-old Junior's behavior. C'mon, it's just a game! Once I had a kid no older than third grade, come up to me and eagerly ask me if we had The Deer Hunter on DVD. WHAT THE FUCK?! A nine-year-old kid shouldn't even know The Deer Hunter exists, for chrissakes.

Truth be told, I myself don't really understand how that sort of thing works. I mean, I remember watching Kung Fu Theater every Saturday after the cartoons went off. My parents wouldn't buy me a copy of Killer Instinct, because of the name (how easy it was to screen), but I had borrowed it from a friend many times and only wanted my own copy. As a male, I was nonetheless appalled and horrified by Mortal Kombat when I first saw-- I believe it was Sub-Zero-- take a man's head off, to which his spine was still attached, yet I eventually became the best MK player in the neighborhood. All this was before I hit 13.

 

Now to be certain, one should take the safe route as a parent, because for me, I am not the easily suggestible type ('cept with kung fu theater), but I tend to think one has to have a decided proclivity toward that sort of thing in the first place, in order for the amount of exposure that I had, or which most kids have to really result in murderous mindsets. On the other hand, the influence on children probably is inversely proportional to age. If one has an improper understanding of the correctness of the images they view, that too can skew their thinking. Which of course, considering that they WILL be exposed, no matter how well any parent tries to prevent it, is another responsibility of the parents.

[The Sage Nabooru]

Oh I know about that. My father was a big lover of movies with violent scenes and shiny things, and I watched all of them as a kid. There were a few that were forbidden to me, though. I can't remember anything in particular, but just the bloodiest, goriest, and most heartless of them. (They were probably trying to protect me both from violence and really crappy plotlines and dialogue.) And of course, no porn. I could see Nazi's faces melting off, but there was absolutely no way I was going to look at a naturally naked human body.

 

I was never affected by them. I was, however, affected by my father's beating me. That's where I got my violent streak. And yet I've been able to keep it in check.

 

There's just a boundary line when violence becomes so flashy that it enchants. Like the kid with The Deer Hunter. No kid should be watching that movie. I know a few adults who probably shouldn't, either. There's just some things that adults can figure out, and kids can't. I can't explain it quite properly, but I think the rating systems do a pretty good job. A child seems more capable of understanding, say, Link cutting up Ganondorf and getting the Triforce back, than Tommy Vercetti ripping into gang members with a chainsaw in Vice City and getting a reward for killing enough in a certain amount of time.

[Dhampir]

I'm not opposed to corporal punishment as it were. My father was heavy-handed, but he always made sure (though I'll say that he was wrong a couple of times) that he was beating my ass for the right reasons, as one time, he actually provided a lengthy explanation for why he was about to do it, so that I'd understand it wasn't unjust. He seemed always to leave enough room for defiance (submission was contrary to the point). My mother, that is my birth mother, who died when I was very young, was much heavier than he ever was, and I resented that. I even resented her for a short time after she died, but I realized, especially recently, that it was her own very strict upbringing, which as some have suggested, is part of the heritage of slavery, that brought her to be so quick to go there. That's not to say she was abusive by any stretch, she was very loving, just not well equipped as a parent in the punitive department, due to her own mother.

 

I guess my point is that any maladjustment I underwent was not the result of that, though I suppose it could have been under other circumstances; the unfairness of that or any type of punishment given the circumstances has always engendered my anger and resentment, and I think I have recieved a number of unfair punishments of all types (being grounded for bad grades for instance) from my father and stepmother, as well as other authority figures, who either were ill informed, or unfit to provide such authority (my aunt).

 

As to the enchantment of certain media, perhaps you're on to something, though again, it seems like an inverse proportion. It makes sense that when something crafted on reality is exposed to children it can alter their perception of right and wrong. I suppose Kung Fu theater is not something I could have expected to see on my streets growing up, but certain things can be glamorized to the point that people can begin to go after it. But again, I think, aside from those things not being really in my nature, that my parents tempering of my exposure by way of explanation and example is responsible for my not going on killing sprees due directly to video games and television. Essentially, it is a parental responsibility to temper their children so that they don't go to deeply into a mindset, as well as monitoring their intake so they don't get overexposed to things they as parents find objectionable.

[Purple]

Okay I am a parent, and I just do not get the... "How can we know?" argument, and the I don't have enough time to check all the games I buy?? Then, maybe... don't buy so many. Spoiled rotten little snots geebus. Seriously if the women doesn't have time to check them, she shouldn't buy them, period, video games are NOT a need, CPS will NOT take your kids cuz they don't have the latest game.

 

My oldest at this point is an adult, she doesn't game though, my son does. He's 14. I have oked all his games, and he's buying them, I'm not. I said no to Grand Theft Auto, then, a few Christmases back we were at my in-laws, and my DH's nephew had gotten it for xmas. He's a year younger than my son, the boys go off to his room to play, a while later I walk by and hear the filthiest language, and am like what the hell?? I walked in the room, and watched the game for a moment, and then just encouraged the boys to go spend time with everyone else. My SIL thinks the DH and I are just paranoid, meanwhile her son thinks men calling women in games bitches and hos is funny..... he now 13, then he was liek 10.

 

 

I do believe 100% that it falls on me to monitor what my kids read (Yeah, mine actaully read too), play and watch. I will admit there are times it's hard to find a balance between sheltering them too much, or letting them do too much. Sometimes I think it can be better to be proactive, and try to get them into doing other things, because quite frankly I don't think even the "good" games are all that great. My son (14) and my younger daughter (10) are both in band, AND they HAVE to do chores, which I find more and more their friends do not have to do. By the time they both practice trumpet, do their chores, and they're homework there's not a lot of game time left.

[Dhampir]

Okay I am a parent, and I just do not get the... "How can we know?" argument, and the I don't have enough time to check all the games I buy?? Then, maybe... don't buy so many. Spoiled rotten little snots geebus. Seriously if the women doesn't have time to check them, she shouldn't buy them, period, video games are NOT a need, CPS will NOT take your kids cuz they don't have the latest game.

Exactly. What the fuck is wrong with those people? They seem to want as little to do with raising their children as possible.

[woodsmoke]

Now to be certain, one should take the safe route as a parent, because for me, I am not the easily suggestible type ('cept with kung fu theater), but I tend to think one has to have a decided proclivity toward that sort of thing in the first place, in order for the amount of exposure that I had, or which most kids have to really result in murderous mindsets. On the other hand, the influence on children probably is inversely proportional to age. If one has an improper understanding of the correctness of the images they view, that too can skew their thinking. Which of course, considering that they WILL be exposed, no matter how well any parent tries to prevent it, is another responsibility of the parents.

 

I never saw Kung Fu Theater, but I can relate. I've always had difficulty wrapping my head around the argument that children can't distinguish between virtual and real violence simply because that was never the case for me. From as early as I can remember, it was just immediately intuitive to me that the stuff happening on the T.V. was very clearly different from that same stuff happening in "real life." I was downright derisive of people making a claim to the opposite at first; I and everyone I knew had always understood T.V. violence isn't real, it was just beyond my comprehension that other people might not.

[Amethyst]

Exactly. What the fuck is wrong with those people? They seem to want as little to do with raising their children as possible.

 

Yeah. I bet most of them would ship their kids off to a boarding school someplace if they could actually afford to.

 

One of these days, child-raising is going to be outsourced even more than it already is to nannies and the like. Just wait and see.

[Purple]

One of these days, child-raising is going to be outsourced even more than it already is to nannies and the like. Just wait and see.

 

Yep, leave the child rearing to the state, to the point anything else is odd, then outlawed, and then.... any hope of your freedom will be gone.

 

Actaully I see this going both ways, on one hand you have more and more people, paying no attention to their kids, giving them to nannies, the TV, and schools. Buying them more toys, and games, and letting them on the internet, expecting others to take care of them. Then you have parents homeschooling their kids, monitoring what they read, watch, or not even letting them watch TV at all. (Think the kids in the Jesus camp film.) I personally don't agree with either extreme. What that will mean for that generation I don't know.

[KenneyVTX]

I actually had to think about this as part of my adoption process. We were required to write up house rules. I was pretty clueless untill I found some examples of what others had written. Every ruleset out there these foster parents had posted specificly included game restrictions. When I wrote my ruleset I found myself dedicating an entire page of text to nothing but network security and computer usage regulations. The only problem I see with this, only depending on your perspective, is that written rules require both sides to be involved in their implementation. From my observations parents expect their children to be little adults and incovience them as little as possible. So, any drug that keeps them sedate or anything that keeps them out of their, the parents, hair is OK.

[Guest Idoless]

Hmm... I honestly don't see much of a problem with M rated games. It all depends on the kid. I was playing GTA when I was 11. And I've yet to kill anybody.

 

Whenever I watch other people's kids, first thing I do is switch on the video games. Usually it's Mario games that they want to play, but I don't disallow any games, not even GTA and the like. Really, if you just turn the volume down and hand the controller to a little kid, they won't even know how to get guns, and they won't hear the cursing. All they know how to do is punch people and drive around. Of course, this is just how I do things. They aren't my kids, so maybe it would be different if they were...

 

Maybe I'll change my mind when I'm older, but... I remember being 10, and 12, and all of those ages (I'm 17 now), and there was really not much of a point in censoring things, because if I wanted to get my hands on it, I would (and I did), regardless of the rules (Eminem CDs and R rated movies come to mind). Restricting things just makes kids want them more.

 

I do, however, agree with the problem of 12-year-olds on Live. People pay for that. Parents need to keep annoying kids off of it.

[Vixentrox]

Maybe the kid was buying The Deerhunter for his dad for his birthday or something? Just a thought.

 

Parents today do seem to love to blame everyone else for thier own failings as a parent. Maybe it's just publicized more and there have always been a smae percentage of shitty parents. Just no one gave a shit in the past if you were.

[Unknowing1]

Being a parent I believe it's my responsibility to rear my children. I do believe that it all gets back to talking to your children. Sure insulate them in the home but that doesn't mean that they won't be exposed to it once they get out in the world. And what a shocker that can be.

 

To me it isn't so much the content of the video games and movies the kids are watching but the parents who are too busy in their lives to take the time to interact with their kids or the parents who think it's great that their 13 year olds are invited to a party with a bunch of 17 and 18 year olds or who have this girl or that girl interested in their kid. But they are one of the first to blame the video games and movies when their kid drinks, does drugs or has sex.