Educator Advocates California's Law Against Violent Games

[Cain_Zeros]

30 years of research? As has been said, that puts the research as starting in 1980.

Let's see, games released in 1980...

Zork, no pictures or anything, no one would consider it a problem.
Pac-Man, It's Pac-Man...
Space Panic, old platformer? Next!
Alakabeth, mostly text, no issue
Rogue, Yeah, no...
Defender, hell no
Battlezone, hahaha, no.

Oddly enough, it appears as if 1980 wouldn't have stirred up any interest in the effects of violent video games on children.

 

[Togusa09]

- No one seems to be able to prove the effect of violence arument to persuade the other party
- However, we still don't think young children should be exposed to extreme violence in any media
- However, it's shouldn't be made a criminal offence, because of the legal avenues that need to be taken for it to be so

Personally I have no problem with some degree of fine for giving adult media to young children, as it is something that should be discouraged.

But it shouldn't involve lumping games in with porn, drugs/alcohol as something that could cause the child serious issues, and has no cultural merit.

And to move in the direction of Movie Bobs angle of equating nerd culture with sports culture, there are many sports that are WAY more violent and harmful than anything in video games, because many of them involve 'attacking' another person in some way, not always with the intention of causing harm, but there can be some serious damage.

 

[superbatranger]

"The California law is important because a parent cannot play the game and make decisions for themselves."

Oh that right there is pure gold! So she's basically saying that all parents are incompetent!
I sure hope she doesn't mind if I quote her on that.

If she said that with a straight face, she would have to be one of the most clueless people to walk the Earth. I say after we prove how wrong she is, we get her teaching credentials revoked and force her to go back to school. Clearly, she didn't learn enough.

 

[Sacman]

Woman, if you want to form an actual opinion. why don't you play an actual video game yourself?

Thank you, thank you very much... forming an opinion on something you have no prior experience with is completely ignorant and these people should be ignored...<.<

 

[kebab4you]

" The California law is important because a parent cannot play the game and make decisions for themselves"

Really? You as a parrent can't judge what is good for your child or not? T.T".

 

[CpnChaos]

While I do agree she isn't very educated on the topic, did anyone read her actual blog? Yes, it was very misinformed, but she DID have one supporting grain of truth at the end that even we as gamers can get behind: she said that it isn't the government's responsibility to monitor the games, it is the parent's responsibility to keep the violent games away form the kids. Now, then she says this, she probably means it in a different context then we would, but still, she has a point there, right?

 

[Nyrad01]

If only my T-90 MBT Russian tank wasn't in for repairs I would be driving over to her house and give her a piece of my mind.

The California law is important because a parent cannot play the game and make decisions for themselves.

WRONG. That is one of the most willfully ignorant statements I have heard out of these people.

Replace "cannot" with "will not". If you've worked in retail you would know how ignorant parents are. I've seen parents buy CoD: Black OPs for kids that could not have been over 8. While I definitely don't agree with this woman, parents need to be educated or something; either that or they just don' care.

The guys that work in my local GAME are pretty good for this sort of thing - They always I.D and ask parents that are buying games like Call of Duty if their aware that their pretty violent, and not suitable for kids.

 

[Coltaculuss]

If I remember correctly, when I couldn't buy a game because the shop assistant wouldn't sell it to me when I was about 15 I would just buy pot instead.



True story.