really you let your kid play THIS

[Slick Samurai]

Well, while I started to play hardcore M rated games like GTA Vice City at 11, I only really got a taste of dirty content when I started WoW at 12.

"But I thought WoW is a T rated game?" you say. Indeed it is, but it seems that they forgot to tell the other kids that, as I quickly learned several new colorful words and meanings. Hell, I practically learned "the talk" all through immature slang from adolescents bickering over Trade chat.

So, I think that parents shouldn't be looking at the obvious dirty games but instead looking at what the hell the other kids their child is going to be around most of the time. Because when it comes down to it, a kid is gonna listen to other kids more than a guy in a blue Hawaiian shirt stealing cars.

 

[flaming_squirrel]

Not particularly surprising, there are a lot of parents out there who rather then taking care of a child will just wack them down infront of the TV for 6 hours, so with that mentality what does it matter to them if the game is 18 rated and full of bloody violence which is completely unsuitable?
It's this kind of irresponsibility which could potentially cause a lot of grief for videogames if ever increasing numbers of children are growing up with a warped view on violence.

Always makes me laugh when people use the argument "But little 8 year old timmy is very mature for his age, he can handle it!", bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. No child that age is capable of really understanding what is going on in scenes such as 'No Russian' or games like GTA/Prototype etc (not to mention especially fucktarded ones such as Manhunt or Madworld).

 

[Reynard Wrecce]

It's a tricky concept in truth, because both sides are so frothy-mouthed and angry. On one side you have the gaming community pointing out that there is NO evidence of any kind to corroborate violence in video games with violence in real life (there were riots at the premiere of Mozart's 'Magic Flute', for Pete's sake, this trope is older than steam). On the other side, the mainstream media and the knee-jerk reaction to any event where a kind hits his sister and they find that he can spell "Modern" or "Warfare"...and of course how can you take ANY chances when children are involved, yadda yadda.
I personally find, as do the gaming kids I know (I work in a school), that the violence has no real effects on children. My big concern comes from a lack of moral centre in certain games; that, if anything, I feel is the biggest danger. But if I had a nine-year-old myself, I'd be Co-Op'ing with it all day, high-fiving every time my rugrat scored a headshot.

 

[Daniel Armstrong]

I was playing Half Life when I was 6.

Still waiting for that fucking episode.

 

[Blue Musician]

I was at my swimming lessons and there was this 9 year old in my group and I was talking to him and all of a suddon he say's what are your favourite games mine are call of duty modernwarfare 2, grand theft auto vice city, call of duty modern warfare, gears of war 2 and saints row 2

im thinking WHAT THE HELL YOUR PARENTS LET YOU PLAY THESE GAMES. I mean really I think I need to knock some sense into them

What is your view on this and have you met any kids who really shouldnt be playing certain games like these

Most of Mexico is like this sadly. I actually started playing at the age of 6/7, but I started with RTS (specifically Age of Empires 2) and I didn't get into other genres until 2008, when I was twelve.

 

[PoliceBox63]

Let's try to look back and remember the violent games we played when we were pre-pubescent and pubescent... they didn't not fuck us me up.

 

[run_forrest_run]

I'd like to comment on the kids terrible sense in games but that'd be missing the point. I personally don't think that games corrupt children, even if they make them lazy. The parents are still at fault though. At that age my parents would never have even humored the idea of buying me any of those.

 

[SnowdensOfYesteryear]

As a gamer since I was young, and the first game I can really remember was Alien Trilogy for the Sega Saturn... I don't think I was fucked up by violent games. In my personal opinion, as long as a child can tell right from wrong, as I could at that age, there's no problem with it...

And I think a lot of people with "evidence" are ignoring possible cause-and-effect order. "Violent videogames leads into violent actions!" Or, y'know, violent people are more likely to enjoy violent games... because they're violent.

 

[irequirefood]

I grew up around Mortal Kombat, starting with MK Trilogy on PSX when I was like 6 and I am the least messed up and violent of my friends, borderline pacifist. My parents didn't mind my exposure to violent video games and I have turned out fine. If I have children and I think they are mature enough for those types of games at a younger stage than deemed appropriate, I will allow them to play said games.

 

[KaiRai]

Well, I was playing those kind of games at his age.

But then, I'd never had any homicidal leanings, so I like to think I could be trusted. Or possibly because the "Oh my god my son played a game I bought him and now he's killed his teacher" brigade weren't around then.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

He's trying to be cool... he probably doesn't even enjoy the games, he just plays them because they're rated M and his mom lets him buy them. It's like the kid who brags about all the R rated movies he's seen.

I would probably let my kids play games like that... my parents raised me well enough to know that the game world isn't the real world and that there are no spawn points in real life and I am going to teach my kids the same things.

I regularly teach students who A) play violent video games and B) have problems dealing with violence or bullying at school. Now let's be fair: there's no evidence of causation in that statement, but I think it's fair to say that seeing graphic depictions of violence being rewarded in games may skew kids' ideas regarding the consequences of violence. Also, there's some pretty conclusive evidence out there that says that violent video games correlate to aggressive kids.

http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/03/03/study-proves-conclusively-that-violent-video-game-play-makes-more-aggressive-kids.html

Who knows what the mechanisms for this might be, but I know that my kids won't be playing violent games until their teen years, maybe 14 or so.

Just letting you know... those studies are just silly. Especially that one, that didn't even explain the test or the results and it's concluding paragraph was just preaching about why people shouldn't sell violent games. It just said, "We conducted a test, ok, and the results were bad. So don't buy video games!" Seriously, I've been playing Call of Duty since was in fourth grade and I've gotten in less fights since I started. I know they're not big fights, considering a was a fourth grader and all, but still. Since then I've killed hundreds of thousands of zombies, aliens, people, and monsters, and I'm probably the least aggressive person you'll meet. If anything, it's a good outlet for aggression because any time I'd want to punch someone in the face (admit it, everyone has at least wanted to do this at some point) I can just run over a thousand zombies in Dead Rising or chainsaw a locust in Gears of War 2.

 

[James Joseph Emerald]

Depends on the kid. My parents didn't really care about violence, but I, as a little ten year old, was actually disgusted by it (I'd always get my dad to walk through the "Bloody Hallway" for me in Metal Gear Solid, before you fight the Cyborg Ninja). My mom even bought me GTA2 once (it was a buy one get one free deal on some other game I got), and I refused to play it because of the big 18's label.

By now, I'm desensitised, but the point is that ten-year-olds aren't pushovers. I was never exposed to anything I didn't want to see.

I mean, these kids are saying "Gears of War is my favourite game ever", NOT "My daddy forced me to play Gears of War and now I have nightmares every night and cry myself to sleep."

 

[Xyliss]

They shouldn't be playing it, but if that child then hurts someone they will instantly blame the games that they shouldn't have let him play in the first place. It's their fault, the game companies quite clearly put appropriate ratings on them and if parents are prepared to follow them then they can't blame anyone else

 

[DeathsHands]

Hasn't the whole "the parents are to blame, not the games" point been made dozens of times in this thread already? Quite a supreme example of redundancy.

 

[Valkyrie101]

Call of Duty's probably fine, but I wouldn't let a nine-year-old play Gears of War, Saint's Row, or GTA. A lot of it depends on the child in question and their maturity, but those titles aren't suitable for that age group really, because they contain gratuitous gore, violence and adult content.

 

[MazeMinion]

I was playing Goldeneye when I was, like, 5. I didn't really care about the violence, because I saw it all the time when my parents were watching the news anyway.

 

[The DSM]

Thats too young to be playing 18's.

I played my first 18 at 13 but was able to see the disconnect between games and real life as I had already been gaming for about 4 years prior.

Playing underage is fine, as long as the kids can see the disconnect and they are about 13+ because then they will be able to see the diffrence more clearly.

 

[Fallen-Angel Risen-Demon]

Maybe there parents saw them as mature?
I've been playng games scince I was 4.
Not of that caliber though my first 18 game I had was Soldier of fortune: Gold edition.
When I was... 6-9 no massive damages I think.
Most recent RDR and I'm 14 now. My parents let me have them as they think I am muture enough to play any games that are not GTA, but i don't like GTA so meh.