According to Atkinson, you, and I for that matter, are those weirdo freak of nature exceptions that absolutely and on no way should be taken into consideration whatsoever, despite the fact that we're pretty much the majority, as far as I can see. All they need is one kid, one kid that decides to get into a fight at school, and see if they played WoW at any point in the past 5 years. "OMG dis kid playd Wordl of Worcraft liek 3 yrs ago for harf an hour and it's totaly corupted him vidogamz are bad BANBANBAN!!!"Truly-A-Lie said:Well I grew up watching whatever I felt like, and once I got to about 9 I could play whatever I felt like, and I never once had a discussion about the difference between reality and gaming, because my parents brought me up so that I had some sense, regardless of topic. I turned out fine, have not once murdered someone. Actually I've never even had a fight.
A friend of mine was brought up watching violence, his dad wanted him desensitised to it, then made sure he would know it is allowed in fiction, but not in real life. Again, he turned out fine.
As far as I can tell, sheltering them just isn't the way to go.
At least I didn't invoke Godwin.Kajin said:I wasn't talking about those. I could care less about those. STOP TALKING ABOUT THOSE!Starke said:At least as democratic as Iran or China, I guess.Kajin said:Are we sure australians are democratic at all? I doubt it.
OT: Why should australian parents be aware of parental control locks when their government doesn't allow the existence of such games in their country at all?
Also, it does allow 15+ games, which include MW2, so... yeah, that's not really a good excuse, no offense.
/crazy ranting
But yeah, it was a comment on how parents can't really be bothered to learn how to protect their children from something when the government is doing it's best to do their job for them.
Hey, if they'd blame the parrents I'd be f---in' thrilled. Really, truely, thrilled. But the blame doesn't go back to bad parrenting, it goes to the developers and publishers. Anyone remember the story about that 12 year old in the UK that swiped his mother's credit card and blew a couple grand on XBox live? The story was about her suing microsoft or something along those lines, not her own intrinsic failures as a parrent.Sennz0r said:I'm sure sheltering children from all that stuff completely isn't the right thing to do, which is what I said as well I believe. What I'm saying is you can't dump all of those issues on kids at once and see how they turn out.
What I don't understand is why I'm having this discussion; when a kid starts trash talking or kicking grandma in the shins because they played GTA 4 everyone's outraged that parents let their children play games like that. Are you suggesting we should be completely candid to children now because the middle ground between completely sheltering them from sex, violence etc. and not caring what games they play seems like the best course to me.
It shouldn't but those in power are obviously not listening.Aitruis said:Media should not be censored because parents don't pay enough attention.
So basically what you're saying here is "let them do whatever the fuck they want because they'll find a way to do it no matter what." Well excuse me if I won't stand by and let my kid screw himself up (if I'll ever have kids). I'm not naive, I know when kids start experimenting with alcohol and cigarettes and the likes. The thing is as a responsible parent you're going to have to teach your kid what's potentially harmful for him so he knows the consequences of his actions. And sure he's gonna have that underage drink anyway. Hell, I got my underage drink from my parents. And you know why? Because they figured this way they could at least introduce me to the stuff themselves, instead of some group of 14 year olds handing me a bottle of vodka straight away.SikOseph said:By 14, the average kid (in the UK) has tried alcohol, cigarettes, and about one in four have tried smoking weed. Many are socially drinking, and learning with their friends about these things, forming habits that will inform the next 10 years of social behaviour. Do you think that not being allowed to play Gears of War is going to make much of a difference?
Yes, I'm an Aussie.Cavmatrix said:wait who commenting on this is an australian?
ABSOLUTELY. If these kids were not allowed to vent their rage by use of violent video games, the world would have no more problems. At all. Ever.SikOseph said:There's nothing scary or upsetting about saying to a child that sex was what adults did to make babies. I don't know about anyone else's families, but in mine, explaining about sex didn't involve a diagramatic mechanical guide on what to do and how to do it, and so I don't see the point of bs-ing kids who ask about a perfectly normal part of adult life.Sennz0r said:So you would explain exactly what sex is to a 6 year old when he asks about it?
There's a time in a kid's life when you stop protecting them from the big, scary real world so he learns to cope. There's also a time when you shield him from all the things that are still unfit for the kid. You can't let a kid play a game like Gears of War and then tell him "remember, it's just a game!" when he goes out to play outside with his friends, knowing damn well children re-enact all manner of things they see and experience.
Protecting your child from certain visuals until he's old enough doesn't make you a bad parent. Teaching them how to deal with certain visuals when they eventually come into contact with them is absolutely the right thing to do, I agree with you on that. It's no use to tell a child it doesn't exist or whatever, there is such a thing as overprotective.
However, when you absolutely don't care what a child sees or hears or plays on a console, you are being a bad parent. Protecting them from it or explaining to them it's not real is caring, that's what it comes down to.
Re-enact it with that chainsaw gun that I keep lying around for him and his friends to play with? Kids have mimicked war since long before GoW and allowing them to play it on the tv isn't going to change the way they play. It might change the words they use and the sorts of weapons they mimick, but they are playing either way. They certainly won't magically find automatic weapons to shoot each other with.There's also a time when you shield him from all the things that are still unfit for the kid. You can't let a kid play a game like Gears of War and then tell him "remember, it's just a game!" when he goes out to play outside with his friends, knowing damn well children re-enact all manner of things they see and experience.
And plenty of anecdotal evidence. This research needs more research.Starke said:There's actually some mildly credible sociological data that says that children who were sheltered from the realities of life completly, (sex, death, and the like) were disadvantaged when dealing with those aspects of life later, in contrast to children who were exposed and could cope much more easily with those factors as an adult. (If I have the time, I'll try to see if I still have the study someplace).
HAHAHA and here we come to the problem. "When a kid starts trash talking or kicking grandma in the shins because they played GTA" <- leaves me gobsmacked. Those 15 hours spent playing GTA managed to unravel all the good work that a sensitive and involved parent spent 11-14 years nurturing to fruition? Yeah, sure. And kids certainly don't swear in the playground, where they learn the words from older kids and so repeat them to be cool.Sennz0r said:What I don't understand is why I'm having this discussion; when a kid starts trash talking or kicking grandma in the shins because they played GTA 4 everyone's outraged that parents let their children play games like that. Are you suggesting we should be completely candid to children now because the middle ground between completely sheltering them from sex, violence etc. and not caring what games they play seems like the best course to me.
By 14, the average kid (in the UK) has tried alcohol, cigarettes, and about one in four have tried smoking weed. Many are socially drinking, and learning with their friends about these things, forming habits that will inform the next 10 years of social behaviour. Do you think that not being allowed to play Gears of War is going to make much of a difference?danpascooch said:But it my opinion, once a kid hits about 14, you shouldn't really bother to shelter him much anymore.