Letting Kids Play M for Mature Games.

[Jackhorse]

I'm british so the whole "M for Mature" is "18" instead. That aside with games like GTA IV etc. I think its depends heavily on the maturity of the child.
I used to love GTA when I was a kid and then I got the game myself instead of just playing it at a freinds and realised it was really dull. Kind of aversion therapy i guess.
The kid will get bored and stop playing it in a couple of weeks and realise that shooting people in the groin is immature and dull eventaully. My long long rambling point is that theres no lasting harm they'll get bored of it soon enough.

 

[MaVeN1337]

Games are not some evil force that manipulate and corrupt every individual who touches them instantly.

It's up to the user to have more than half a brain cell, and separate reality from virtual reality.

Also, It's up to parents to decide what they think is appropriate content for there children to be seeing.

 

[AyrSuppli]

We had a thread like this recently.
Anyway, I'm kind of for it, actually. I'm growing up in a (ofttimes overly-)Catholic household. And I'm not allowed to DO anything. If my parents knew that I was an Escapist, or (dear God) a deviantART, they would KILL me. They're so fracking paranoid. I'm not allowed to say "shut up" or "that sucks". They don't let people in my house play T games until they're 13, and if they knew that I went to my friend's house to play MW2 I'd be dead. My brother is 19 or 20 now, and they won't let him play M games in the house. Now I'm not saying I want a 6-year old raping and shooting hookers, but I really could care less about violence and language. Sexuality, alright, maybe, but it's not like we all aren't exposed to it 24/7 anyway. I would let a 9-/10-year old play MW2, but he'd have to be around 15 before I let him play GTA and Saints Row, that kind of thing.

 

[razer17]

Ok people are both understand and misunderstanding my original statement.

It is illegal for a vendor to sell a game if they know it is going to be supplied to a minor, however it is not illegal for your parent or adult to hand over the game to you. It's a silly rule but there it is. If a vendor sells a parent an 18+ game for a 6 year old, the vendor will get in trouble, not the parent. That was my point.

No, I got that bit. I was saying that I thought the games industry regulated itself, and that the age ratings on games weren't legal requirements, and that the only reason stores don't sell games to kids is because of store policy.

 

[Lucane]

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.

Actually it's not ok to "sell" directly to a person under the age of 17 if a parent or guardian concents to it it's fine and legal ,but Games rated AO and Movies NC-17 are 100% illegal for minors under any means.

 

[Choppaduel]

Rating system isn't perfect. So, the only way I would let my kid play ANY game is if I played it first.

 

[JimJamJahar]

I really don't see the point of having age ratings. My dad is a gamer and he introduced me at a very early age. I used to sit there while he played the first GTA and I wasn't that old when I first played it. I turned out fine. I have never gone out and shot anyone and don't plan on doing so any time soon. I mean, even a child can play a game and know that it is not real; I've been doing that my whole life. I might have something to do with my dad being a gamer and he must have taught me when I first started playing games, but I still think that it is a basic skill.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

I think a good time for kids to move up in the rating chain is when they are both old enough and mature enough to be able to stay home alone without destroying the house or getting into trouble. I also think the overall mental health of the kid plays a big part. Obviously the kid with severe ADHD and mild mental retardation is going to have a bit more trouble differentiating between what's real and what's fiction compared to the kid that has nothing wrong mentally.

 

[esperandote]

Instead of explaining to her why she shouldn't have bought the game you should have told her that it was and adult game. After that there isn't much you can do.

I play Mortal Kombat with my nephews but i keep an eye on them and take care they dont get to obssesed with it.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

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.

Actually it's not ok to "sell" directly to a person under the age of 17 if a parent or guardian concents to it it's fine and legal ,but Games rated AO and Movies NC-17 are 100% illegal for minors under any means.

It is legal for a minor to purchase any M-rated game as long as there is a parent or legal guardian present in the store and knows about the purchase.(I've done it a few times and haven't been denied the purchase) As for AO games, it is like serving a beer to a minor in a bar. It is completely illegal for the minor to be served it directly but as long as the parent or guardian buys it and serves it to the minor it is completely legal. The same can be said about movies.

 

[Xojins]

I've been playing M rated games since I was like... 12? Maybe younger. They haven't really affected me in a negative way; any problems I have now I already had before I played video games at all.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

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.

Of course because God-Fucking-Forbid anything be the parents doing... It HAS to be the game or any form of media. It's not like the parents can CONTROL what their kids play and watch or anything.

 

[TheFurryChicken]

Purchasing an M for Mature game for a child who is not M for Mature by a long shot denies a parent the right to complain when the game they bought for their child is not as happy go lucky as they first thought. If they complain the rating system is bad, lets look at a standard rating tab on a box... hmmm, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. On the front of the box: Mature 17+. That's just the rating for the game... out of 20, right? Let's turn it over to the back. Mature 17+. Blood and Gore. Intense Violence. Strong Language. All of those words sound like a 5 year old kind of game to the world, right?

Plain and simple. Many parents are stupid. The gaming world should not suffer for it.

 

[mike1921]

I'll start caring about age ratings when the people setting they stop giving everything in the world a rating 1 higher than it should be.

If you are 13, and you are immature enough where you would kill somebody because of Halo then you should be have been in a mental hospital since birth.

I personally don't like to assume every 13 year old is developmentally behind where a 5 year old should be

I think if your 13 year old can't handle any form of fiction the world throws at them, the least of your problems should be the fiction itself. The most should be that your kid is too dumb to be part of society.

 

[Lucane]

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.

Actually it's not ok to "sell" directly to a person under the age of 17 if a parent or guardian concents to it it's fine and legal ,but Games rated AO and Movies NC-17 are 100% illegal for minors under any means.

It is legal for a minor to purchase any M-rated game as long as there is a parent or legal guardian present in the store and knows about the purchase.(I've done it a few times and haven't been denied the purchase) As for AO games, it is like serving a beer to a minor in a bar. It is completely illegal for the minor to be served it directly but as long as the parent or guardian buys it and serves it to the minor it is completely legal. The same can be said about movies.

That's what I was saying I just messed up the punctuation a little.

 

[clankwise]

mY FIRST GAMES WERE soul revear ,dark cloud, silent hill. But that was back when with ps1 and the begining of ps2 and i was 8. Still 16 or 14 is more appropriate instead of 18

 

[standokan]

Yeah its kind of reatharded, 8 year olds should play outside because they have like 10 (or 40 if you're cool) years left to ruin on videogames but only like 1 or 2 in which they can AcTuaLLy enjoy a game of hide and seek. The world is some much better when you're 8 because you're just too stupid to understand the horrible things of this world and yet smart enough to enjoy the little good things left on this blue ball we call earth. Sigh, nostalgia does it every time

 

[GundamSentinel]

Personally, when I wasn't old enough to play Mature games, but did play them, I really wasn't aware of the mature content going on around me. I played GTA for giggles, not because I wanted to be a homocidal maniac. No, I wouldn't recommend such games for kids, and I don't approve of the lack of awareness among parents, but I won't protest if M games are bought for kids.

 

[The Austin]

Frankly, as long as I can't hear them through my microphone, they can do whatever the hell they want.