Letting Kids Play M for Mature Games.

[VanityGirl]

Nothing bothers me more when I see a parent go into gamestop, pick up a title like Manhunt and say "Oh yeah, my 8 year old would like this".

It gives me a sense of slight disdain as I see an obvious nongamer pick up a game for their gamer kid without any knowledge on the content of the game.

My buddy who works at Gamestop told me that he had a woman come in and grab a copy of GTAIV. The guy, being a good employee, asked if she'd ever played a GTA before.
The lady responded, "Oh this isn't for me, it's for my 7 year old son". The man aked her if she knew anything about Grand Theft auto. The woman responded with a simple "No".
After explaining that you can buy hookers, drugs, beat people to death, shoot police, and all the other things you can do, the woman (who wasn't listening) just said OK and still bought the game.


Before I get the "Well if they're mature enough argument" let's step back and think.

DO you remember how you acted a 5-10? Most likely you weren't the cream of the crop maturity wise. I sure wasn't. I climbed trees and played Scoooby Doo and Boogerman on my Genesis!

I don't mind when parents let their kids play games, but I do mind that they aren't taking a more active role in watching what their kids play.
These are the same people who look back 20 years later and say "Why is my kid so fucked up?"

What is your opinion on the matter?

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I think its terrible. For me the rough sort of age where the parent needs to decide whether their child is mature enough.

I had GTA at 12... but most people say I'm really mature for my age.

Buying a child under that age an 18 and not even knowing anything about it is just bad parenting plain and simple.

 

[afaceforradio]

Nothing bothers me more when I see a parent go into gamestop, pick up a title like Manhunt and say "Oh yeah, my 8 year old would like this".

It gives me a sense of slight disdain as I see an obvious nongamer pick up a game for their gamer kid without any knowledge on the content of the game.

My buddy who works at Gamestop told me that he had a woman come in and grab a copy of GTAIV. The guy, being a good employee, asked if she'd ever played a GTA before.
The lady responded, "Oh this isn't for me, it's for my 7 year old son". The man aked her if she knew anything about Grand Theft auto. The woman responded with a simple "No".
After explaining that you can buy hookers, drugs, beat people to death, shoot police, and all the other things you can do, the woman (who wasn't listening) just said OK and still bought the game.


Before I get the "Well if they're mature enough argument" let's step back and think.

DO you remember how you acted a 5-10? Most likely you weren't the cream of the crop maturity wise. I sure wasn't. I climbed trees and played Scoooby Doo and Boogerman on my Genesis!

I don't mind when parents let their kids play games, but I do mind that they aren't taking a more active role in watching what their kids play.
These are the same people who look back 20 years later and say "Why is my kid so fucked up?"

What is your opinion on the matter?

It's a federal offense to supply an underage person with an age-rated item, she shouldn't have been sold the item by law!

I hate it myself. Same with films. Age ratings are there for a reason.

 

[WrongSprite]

My opinion is, I'm not fucked up.

Can't be too bad.

 

[Giest4life]

I don't care. Get them what keeps them quiet.

 

[Alfador_VII]

I'm well over 18, but probably did play the odd M rated game under age, however I've also played most of the GTA games, and would be very uncomfortable about letting them near a child as young as 7.

I'd think about it for teenagers or older children, but not that young.

 

[VanityGirl]

It's a federal offense to supply an underage person with an age-rated item, she shouldn't have been sold the item by law!

I hate it myself. Same with films. Age ratings are there for a reason.

I hate seeing underae kids in theatures. I mean obviously underage kids. When I first watched the Saw movie, there was a fucking 10 year old in the movie. It was a "really now?" moment.

 

[Anah'ya]

Head to a local playground or Kindergarten and watch the youngsters. See how they are trying to reenact their favorite cartoons or the movie they just saw?

Yeah.

So.

Yeah.

I damn well know it wouldn't have been healthy for me if I'd grown up with games like these at that early and age. My imagination was and is way too vivid.

Anyway, that really is just horrible parenting. Though by now we all know its not the parents fault if something does go wrong (even if it entirely unrelated to any media). Its always the games.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

I don't have a problem with letting kids play the game so long as they know and recognize that it isn't real and in no way meant to happen. If I had a child and they did something wrong and it was in any way related to a game they played, I'd take the game from them. I likely wouldn't be giving my seven year old child GTA though, but I wouldn't keep all M rated games away.

However, I don't support a parent ignorantly buying a game for a kid. I worked at a GameStop for a short period of time and had a similar situation occur and by law I had explained the same situation to the mother and she simply nodded and bought the game. She came back a few days later ranting and raving about how she couldn't believe I sold her the game.

So in all reality, it really depends on both the child and the parent. If the child can't accept that it isn't real then they shouldn't have it. If the parent is too ignorant to pay attention to what they are giving their kids-- they probably won't notice if their kid is messed up or realize why.

 

[GaD]

i played 18 games when i was under 18 aswell roughly like 12 onwards

however my ex girlfriends little brother is 9 and plays 18 games and hes quiet impressionable he played saints row 2 and it made him think he could swear in real life situations infront of his parents he still does as a matter of fact.

i do think that parents should be made aware of the content of the games they are buying for their kids but as you said the woman didnt care . why doesnt she care i think its to do with if her son is playing gta or whatever then she gets hours of peace and quiet and doesnt care what hes doing in the game.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Nothing bothers me more when I see a parent go into gamestop, pick up a title like Manhunt and say "Oh yeah, my 8 year old would like this".

It gives me a sense of slight disdain as I see an obvious nongamer pick up a game for their gamer kid without any knowledge on the content of the game.

My buddy who works at Gamestop told me that he had a woman come in and grab a copy of GTAIV. The guy, being a good employee, asked if she'd ever played a GTA before.
The lady responded, "Oh this isn't for me, it's for my 7 year old son". The man aked her if she knew anything about Grand Theft auto. The woman responded with a simple "No".
After explaining that you can buy hookers, drugs, beat people to death, shoot police, and all the other things you can do, the woman (who wasn't listening) just said OK and still bought the game.


Before I get the "Well if they're mature enough argument" let's step back and think.

DO you remember how you acted a 5-10? Most likely you weren't the cream of the crop maturity wise. I sure wasn't. I climbed trees and played Scoooby Doo and Boogerman on my Genesis!

I don't mind when parents let their kids play games, but I do mind that they aren't taking a more active role in watching what their kids play.
These are the same people who look back 20 years later and say "Why is my kid so fucked up?"

What is your opinion on the matter?

It's a federal offense to supply an underage person with an age-rated item, she shouldn't have been sold the item by law!

I hate it myself. Same with films. Age ratings are there for a reason.

Unfortunately, even with her saying that it was for her son, the employee is not prohibited by law because a customer of age bought the game. If the 7 year old had produced a wallet (Somehow) then it would be illegal.

They tried to pass that law in Canada but it didn't work, because the ESRB stated that their guidelines are just that: guidelines intended to inform. They refused to be held by law, because then technically a 17 year old could be put in jail for buying the wrong game. They didn't want to be held in such a position. Sometimes the ESRB will rate a game M for blood, violence, drug reference, partial nudity, and I see no blood or drug references. Can't remember the game off hand...

I do agree with VanityGirl though. I think it's actually kind of sick that parents arn't watching out for what their kids are playing.

EDIT: The only law in place (I believe) is that you're Technically supposed to warn the purchaser of content. Alot of places just don't though.

 

[Crayzor]

I was bought games that were 18s when I was underage, buy my dad always understood exactly what sort of games they were, and if he thought they were inappropriate for me, I didn't get them.

 

[Timmey]

I personally don't think there is anything wrong with it. When I was young I was allowed to play anything I wanted, doesn't make me a psychopath waiting to kill people. If a parent is willing to let their children play M games then that is their decision. The state shouldn't stop it from happening.

 

[L4hlborg]

I don't completely agree with all age ratings. I myself am 17, and I have played 18+ games for a few years now. Stuff like Gears of War, L4D and Call of Duty are not disturbing in any way. Except for the spawning system of CoD MW2, which might traumatize a child to kill him/herself.

But if I had kids under the age of 15, I would not let them play games like that. I don't know if the games will mess them up or not, but I'd really rather play it safe.

 

[razer17]

It's a federal offense to supply an underage person with an age-rated item, she shouldn't have been sold the item by law!

I hate it myself. Same with films. Age ratings are there for a reason.

IT is? Because I am fairly sure that the industry self regulates. In the UK, I know that I can get an adult to buy me an 18 rated game. I once wanted to buy a GTA game at age ~15. The guy in the shop told me to get an adult, and pointed out his mate in the corner (not an employee) and I got him to buy the game for me.

I used to play GTA: VC with my mate, who was 4 years younger than me (well, I say mate, he just had really good games) at release, in 2002. I would have been 10. A 6 year old had GTA VC and we used to kill and maim and what not. Funnily enough, he isn't screwed up. The psychological validity of saying "Violent games at a young age screws kids up" is almost nil. Sure, it can have an affect when a child can't tell reality from fiction, but they learn that pretty quickly. Of course, if they have a mental disorder, it's a different ball game, but adults have those too.

All that said, I generally don't think under 10's should get their hands on. Even if it's not going to fuck them up, it's not really the type of content suitable for them. My parents bought me GTA:SA when I was like 12, and look how I turned out a murderous sociopath a pretty normal guy.

 

[The Hairminator]

I think I had GTA for PlayStation when I was like 10, but my mom wouldn't let me play it. Well, she'd let me play it, but everytime she saw me do it she called me a psycopath, and acted cold and dismissive towards me for a while afterwards, so I still can't play the old GTA games without getting subconcious feelings of guilt.

Thanks mom, I'm sure I'm a lot more mentally stable now because of your treatment. :/

 

[StONEdeF]

I really hate it if they afterwards complain that the game has elements that the parents don't like their young kids playing. I'll take Mass Effect as an example. It was even being talked about on TV concerning the sex scene that it shouldn't have been in the game. That it isn't suitable to show young kids. The game is 18+ for a reason.

 

[Ironic Pirate]

I'm under 18, so my parents have to approve an M game before I can get it.

The annoying thing is, they're much more queasy then me, and they'll read about rather than watch the games, and when people describe violence in movies and games they tend to exaggerate...