Parents Worry More About Games Than Booze, Porn
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
70's and 80's people used to blame it for all kinds of ridiculous crap. Um...and the Victorian Era was pretty weird about it too.scarbunny post=7.68109.621073 said:
Bout time someone said it. Here's a real newsflash for you: you don't have to PLAY videogames in order to monitor them in the hands of your child.
Holiday Shopping Tip #69:
If the title of a game shares its name with a major felony (Grand Theft Auto for the thick), it likely isn't a good title for that impressionable 12 year old you shat out.
Its really not that difficult if parents weren't often 10x lazier than their children.
Holiday Shopping Tip #69:
If the title of a game shares its name with a major felony (Grand Theft Auto for the thick), it likely isn't a good title for that impressionable 12 year old you shat out.
Its really not that difficult if parents weren't often 10x lazier than their children.
That's not what I wrote. From what I've heard and read (I'm far from a fan of that kind of media), a lot of porn films are huge piles of violent crap. But porn by itself is by no means as bad as a lot of people pretend it is. The representation of sex is by no means "bad" by itself. It's just something that "innocent" children shouldn't look at, but that's just as true for violence.
The problem is that people are still more shocked by the fact that there could be sex in a video game than by the fact that it is violent.
And if parents are too lazy to learn anything about the content of the games they buy or to ask questions, there's still the ESRB or PEGI classification. They are sometimes not appropriate (For exemple, PEGI for Half Life 2 is 18+ whereas it is 16+ for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.), but they give at least a good idea of who is supposed to play the game...
I wouldn't call these results demoralizing, but rather disgusting. How in the hell can anyone justify being more concerned about gaming than a substance that kills brain cells and causes liver damage? They'd rather their kids be alcoholics than gamers? In-freakin-sane.
Sometimes I have a hard time tolerating the entire human race.
Sometimes I have a hard time tolerating the entire human race.
Yes, that's frightening. Parents seems more concerned by the fact that they kids could be having fun than by the fact that they could hurt themselves or get hurt.
As if having fun was bad, in some way...
That's not quite what's being said. Its right at the end of the article. Parents aren't more concerned about videogames affecting their child. They're more concerned about not knowing how to DEAL with videogames affecting their child. Alcohol has been around as long as living memory has existed and so have its associated problems, and therefore, this generation of parents is much more well equipped to deal with the problems.Royas post=7.68109.621164 said:
I agree that the results are disgusting, but I disagree on why. Its disgusting because it shows that parents are lazy. They're more concerned about video games because they don't know how to handle them. Problem is, its not that they don't know how to handle them that disgusts me, its that they're unwilling to learn.
Perhaps the most relevant bit is "parents we spoke with ... bemoaned the fact that they didn't know how to use game controls ... Of course, parents don't want their children drinking alcohol, but that's a more familiar risk"
Thats a good point. Most parents have been drunk and watched porn, but can't play the game and can't see what's in the game. Unlike a film, where you can fast forward or whatever. I suppose the fear is the character swearing whilst being drunk and killing someone in a sex club... which i think I've actually nearly managed to do in GTA4 so... heh.
Thats a good point. Most parents have been drunk and watched porn, but can't play the game and can't see what's in the game. Unlike a film, where you can fast forward or whatever. I suppose the fear is the character swearing whilst being drunk and killing someone in a sex club... which i think I've actually nearly managed to do in GTA4 so... heh.
Although those results are interesting, I'm not sure if we can take the results of a poll about parent's views on games at face value when it comes from a site called What They Play. I've been there, and it's actually not a bad site for informing parents about games, but it occurs to me that the parents who aren't concerned about video games or who play games themselves, aren't going to be answering polls on What They play, so I doubt it's representative of parents across the whole population.
Still, it is an interesting study, I' like to see what the results would have been from a less bias sample.
Still, it is an interesting study, I' like to see what the results would have been from a less bias sample.
I hadn't even thought of it this way. What They Play is a place to inform the uninformed, essentially. So all those that are already informed, won't go there, and won't participate in the poll.Ploppy post=7.68109.621217 said:
Jaded results being passed as scientific evidence...color me shocked...
I'm going to add to Ploppy's point, as I went to the site interested in finding out their process for selecting respondents and asking them questions. Sadly, that information was not readily available. From a media source, thats both highly irregular and simply unacceptable. I'm going to assume the questionaire I saw on the website is the actual poll which means two things;
1) The poll is voluntary. This means it doesn't represent all parents, just parents who wanted their opinion represented. This is a big no-no in legitimate polls.
2) The poll is slanted, as Ploppy pointed out, towards people that visit the site.
This doesn't mean the poll is wrong, or that alot of parents don't worry about video games. There is always the chance that the poll is right. However, since the method was incorrect, there is no reasonable certainty that the poll is representative of the population. Considering the nature of the website, I would assume its strongly slanted towards bumping that 19% up. I wonder what the poll would say on the DARE website, eh?
1) The poll is voluntary. This means it doesn't represent all parents, just parents who wanted their opinion represented. This is a big no-no in legitimate polls.
2) The poll is slanted, as Ploppy pointed out, towards people that visit the site.
This doesn't mean the poll is wrong, or that alot of parents don't worry about video games. There is always the chance that the poll is right. However, since the method was incorrect, there is no reasonable certainty that the poll is representative of the population. Considering the nature of the website, I would assume its strongly slanted towards bumping that 19% up. I wonder what the poll would say on the DARE website, eh?
I gotta say that this is just stupid, I've played GTA IV, and I haven't done anything bad or mimicked the game, ignorance is what this is and it's killing the gaming culture.
Age is a huge factor though. I don't know how old you are or the circumstances under which you were raised, but I would bet that you are either late teens/ early 20s or you were sufficiently taught right from wrong. The problem is, when these games do end up in the hands of younger gamers, as they no-doubt do, they can and will leave an impression if such behavior is not headed off by the parent. And that's what's being discussed, parent's are unsure how to explain right from wrong to their younger child in the context of gaming. The ignorance is in that parents are unwilling to try to learn, and that's no longer ignorance, it's negligence.Spartan Bannana post=7.68109.621305 said:
I think the results would read exactly as you've implied. DARE and What they play are both purely informational sites, and a parent is going to go to where they need information, and a parent is only going to need information on something they're worried about. So if a parent is worried about drugs, they're gonna go to dare and fill out a poll saying they're most concerned about drugs. If its videogames they're going to go to What they Play and fill out a poll saying they're most concerned about videogames. This poll may be true but its illegitimate at best and we'll never know if its true until you get a legitimate, unbiased study done.dukeh016 post=7.68109.621291 said:
