94 replies to this topic

[MdaG]

What are you thoughts on the age limits of different games and movies? For example I feel that all the hype around the sex scenes in San Andreas is laughable when the rest of the game is all about glorifying violence and crime. To me that should be the point of focus and not the sex. Then again I'm not sure if violence is that damaging to kids.

[A. J. Raffles]

Hmm, I don't know. Both migh potentially be damaging to a child, I suppose, but you'll never find out whether it actually was damaging until it's too late...

[Tulac]

I don't know really, people have grown numb concidering both sex and violence from TV, that I'm not sure if games even affect people, you know considering violence you can blow some steam off that you maybe won't in real life...

[A. J. Raffles]

Well, but I'm not really sure whether you can violence on TV is safe for childre either. (Incidentally, it's not like violence on TV is completely inevitable, and every eight-year-old must have seen hundreds of murders on TV already.) I mean, when I was six, I had nighmares for several weeks after watching an - otherwise completely harmless - film that featured one scene in which somebody tried to run somebody over with a car (he didn't even manage to do it, by the way). Quite frankly, I was horrified. Now, I didn't watch a lot of TV, so maybe I was a bit more squeamish than my classmates who seemed quite happy watching Jaws, but I certainly didn't consider that a harmless experience...

[Tom Henrik]

I'll do a Danny and not read the other posts. HAH! I am eveel

Violent Sex - definately.


Hihihihihi... they never saw that one comming

*giggles as he disappears*

[DakaSha]

voted that both are safe. i just think that a kid that flips out because of sex or violence was nuts in the first place

[A. J. Raffles]

DakaSha, on Oct 30 2005, 12:54 PM, said:

voted that both are safe. i just think that a kid that flips out because of sex or violence was nuts in the first place

Perhaps, but even then shouldn't you have been a bit more responsible than causing him to flip out? I mean, just because something's perfectly harmless to you, it's not necessarily equally harmless to a child.

[Eagle of Fire]

I voted without reading the first post, so my vote is really not to the point. You can overlook the "violence is worse" answer and add another "both is safe".

I am amazed to see such very normal games such a Diablo II flagged as 16+, Violence rating. Now that's pointless to the highest degree.

[taikara]

I think parents that let their kids play games with graphic violence and sex content (like San Andreas)  should be shot.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it if it's an adult playing the game, but an adult is old enough to decide what is right or wrong for him/her.

But I wouldn't shelter my kids from such things, either, as they are out there, and my kids will encounter them at some point, whether I like it or not, and when they're old enough, they're going to have to make the decision on whether they're okay with such things or not.

Also, there's a difference between realistic violence that glorifies drug culture, the "gangsta lifestyle", and disrespect towards women, and unrealistic violence, in which you're a hero wacking your way through monsters with a sword or crossbow.

It depends a lot on the game, imho.

I plan to have many discussions with my children about this sort of thing (violence and sex in media, the meaning of sex, how to treat people, drugs, etc) as early and often as possible, and do my best to encourage my children to come to me whenever they feel uncomfortable with something they've seen or read. If they want to play a game that is "questionable", I think I'd make them debate it with me first until they can come up with a logical enough reason that it's okay for them to play, and won't damage their perspective on life to play.

Of course, planning is much easier than actual practice, but I would do my absolute best.

[Moogle]

For me it mainly depends on what degree of sex/violence it is...
Mostly in games its fine tho.
Personally, like many other people, I wouldn't want to let my imaginary kids play GTA or games like that because it has "explicit content" not saying that the content itself is unsafe but it really depends on the person. For example, you could have a kid go and play GTA and go out and try and steal a car, and yes thats verry bad, but you could also have some kid watch some superman cartoon and start believing that he can fly and exert himself more than he really can (or she for that matter). Mainly it comes down to how old you are (you probly shouldn't be playing/watching it in the first place!) and how much common sense you have.

[A. J. Raffles]

Yes, but I think the point is you can't just declare it to be "safe" under all circumstances. There may be circumstances under which it is NOT safe to expose a child to that sort of thing. And really, I'd rather have a rating system that's a bit too squeamish about certain matters then one that allows rather too much.

Edit: I just realised this is an incredibly woolly post. Strange. I haven't even watched any YPM lately...

Edited by A. J. Raffles, 30 October 2005 - 10:41 PM.

[DeathDude]

Yeah really is hard to say that there can be safe in circumstances, and yeah if you try to shelter your child too much at home, when they get out in the real world they will be exposed to it at some point from there on, it's kinda like parents who home school their kids because they don't want their kids to face the horror and pain of school, like bullys stuff like that. Well once they get into the working world that changes and they will face it and since they could've experienced it in school now they enter it without no experience at all and that will definitely effect them

For games sex and violence is increasing, again it depends on the game you play, and really any parent who lets a 6 year old play San Andreas or any mature rated game really needs to get their head checked, and if they use the excuse, gee I didn't know it was mature, yeah why don't you pay attention to the box it's not that hard to spot the rating on it.

Violence in games is rising, one of the more violent games I know has to be Soldier of Fortune, the amount of brutality you can do in that game, I think goes just perhaps a bit too far imo with the amount of damage you can do to a human body, but that's just what I think.

Really it is a good idea for parents to sit down with their kids and explain to them about this sort of thing, and if they have questions to come to them with their concerns, by working together it really can make a difference for children and really just monitoring of these things will make the difference.

[DakaSha]

taikara, on Oct 30 2005, 04:19 PM, said:

I think parents that let their kids play games with graphic violence and sex content (like San Andreas)  should be shot.

i find that extremly offending considering i was allowed to play both

[Dvoe]

The degree of exposure to sex and violence and the age of the children must be positively correlated. Very young children should be kept away from both but as the kids move into their teenage years / adolescence they should be allowed to view certain degrees of this stimuli. For example, children younger than the age of 13 should NOT be playing the GTA series and renting porno movies. But it is WAY overkill if the parents of a 17 or 18 year old is holding them back from the same 2 things. Parents have to use their better judgement, which is most cases is virtually nonexistent these days. Parents either don't care at all or turn their kids into basket cases with their censorship.

[taikara]

DakaSha, on Oct 31 2005, 12:09 AM, said:

taikara, on Oct 30 2005, 04:19 PM, said:

I think parents that let their kids play games with graphic violence and sex content (like San Andreas)  should be shot.

i find that extremly offending considering i was allowed to play both

Daka, when San Andreas came out, you were 21 or so, well old enough to decide whether or not you wanted to play it without your parents' intervention.

When you were a *kid*, say 15 and younger (as at about 16, parents tend to have less control over whether their kids participate in certain activities, as the moral values of the child are typically mostly formed at this point, though still in development. To me, 16 is too old to be a child, too young to be an adult.), the games were NOTHING like what is available now, in terms of violent and sexual content, especially realistic violent and sexual content.

The sad thing is that MANY parents don't monitor their children's activities, and so don't realize they're playing games like San Andreas, or getting their grubby little kiddie hands on pornographic material.

And then they wonder why their kids grow up to be violent little misogynists.

And no, I don't think entertainment media is to blame for kids bringing guns to school and shooting other kids, or kids raping other kids, or anything similar. I think the parents are to blame for being sucky parents, and that's why I feel so strongly about it. I blame the parents of yesterday for today's society, and I feel that they should be held accountable. I was exaggerating when I said they should be shot, but it was to demonstrate just how strongly I feel about poor parental guidance.