TV News Report Warns of "Cyber-Bullying" on Xbox Live

[Swyftstar]

How exactly are they being exposed to x-rated content on Xbox Live. Not that I don't believe the statement, I just want to know how I can get in on it myself.
As others have said, this is a mature game. 8 to 11 year olds should not be playing CoD. At least wait until they are teenagers. This also points to the weird hypocrisy we have where copious amounts of violence is fine but naughty words and the sight of a boobie during the Superbowl is a tragedy.

 

[Thyunda]

Recently I saw interesting scene in store, some kid (11-12 years old) went to his mom with the box of COD:MW3. Mother said "No". I was pleasantly surprised- finally someone adequately evaluates content of the game... and then she said her reason: "I already bought you GTA last week".
Something died in me that moment and I decided that when I'll become rich enough I will make a game with only purpose to punish parents who don't pay attention to ratings.
I'll call it "Rainbow parrot tea party" and cover of it will be happy, jolly and utterly innocent.
But it will be AO/R rated rapegorefest with elements of pedonecrozoophilia and infused with satanic rituals.
If everything goes as planned 10% of developers will go insane during development process, at least one will commit suicide after game is released and remaining developers will have nightmares for the rest of their lives.
Hopefully after playing this game kids will kill their braindead parents in their sleep.
Maybe after that parents will realize that rating is not only a decoration of the box, but actually means something.
(Yes, I'm that evil)

P.S. Hopefully by the time I have means of creating such game, parents will become smarter.

I was always allowed to play games above my age rating, and I came out just fine. The problem here isn't that the kids are playing violent games when they're too young, it's that they're not being taught to handle it properly. I'm nineteen now and I STILL have reservations about swearing around family, and y'know, stabbing people is just out of order.

Also. Captcha - 'ear candy'.

I sense an ironic connection.

 

[Vidiot]

Honestly, I don't have kinds. If I did, I have a pretty easy idea how to deal with such things.

The obvious solution is not to let an 8 year old play CoD games, but sometimes the game is just too ubiquitous to avoid, and the kid is going to play either at my house or elsewhere. I'd rather the kid be honest about it.

I would set the Xbox on his profile to play voice through headphones only, then only give him the headset when he's playing with his real world friends in a party.

That way I know whose mother to call when I hear my kid say "slob on my knob if you don't like it, fag." ...and I'd take away the headset when I hear crap like that.

Yeah, it's armchair parenting since I don't have a kid, but it doesn't seem that difficult.

 

[Marudas]

Parent: Dear god! How can they do this!? Wont someone think of the CHILDREN!?

^ (Bought Xbox, Xbox headset and mature videogames for child. Never took any interest in the child or content of the games they were playing, and only now knows because they watched a slant on some news network)

 

[Samantha Burt]

What the bloody hell is an 'internet safety expert'?

And how do I get a hack job as one. I can spout shit to close-minded parents trying to shift the blame for their failures.

As was stated in a post above, I'm pretty sure it's someone hired to tell people that it's not their fault that children are exposed to this sort of thing. It seems like an easy job, but I wouldn't do it purely from a moral stance. xD

 

[blackrave]

That's an assumption.

Assumptions are not facts, but speculation, and speculation has no place in news unless its clearly presented as speculation.

It is deduction, not assumption
You can clearly hear shooting in the background.
I don't know what exactly this game was, but there is high possibility that it was inappropriate for kids.
One thing that confuses me is 4 controllers, so maybe it isn't CoD or Halo, so if anyone else have bigger experience with X360 (I'm PC gamer), he/she could speculate what game it could be (maybe side scroller).

 

[EHKOS]

Protip: It's not just the M rated games. I've heard some pretty bad shit racing in NFS online.

 

[Right Hook]

Seeing as how the WORST players I've met online sound like 8 year old...

Maybe parents should parent their kids before bitching about others'.

This is pretty much the truth.

Also...isn't CoD (and other multiplayer games where people would have mics) rated M? I mean...why would you have your 8 year old kids playing that in the first place?

Not saying that because a game is rated M, that gives people free reign to spew verbal abuse on whoever draws their ire, but it's kind of...yeah.

Exactly, I was expecting this to turn into a witch hunt, when it didn't I was surprised, this report was still biased in favor of the little angel 8 year olds out there. I guess it's a good thing if parents are more aware of what their kids are playing, it means the responsible gamers may not have to deal with as many racists little bastards since the parents will be watching them to make sure they are safe.

 

[Ticonderoga117]

Welcome to the internet, where everyone and their mother swears at complete strangers, population: Most of the modern world.

 

[Shinigami214]

That's an assumption.

Assumptions are not facts, but speculation, and speculation has no place in news unless its clearly presented as speculation.

It is deduction, not assumption
You can clearly hear shooting in the background.
I don't know what exactly this game was, but there is high possibility that it was inappropriate for kids.
One thing that confuses me is 4 controllers, so maybe it isn't CoD or Halo, so if anyone else have bigger experience with X360 (I'm PC gamer), he/she could speculate what game it could be (maybe side scroller).

Quibbling over the definitions of assumptions and deductions is besides the point.

My original point was that the escapist article is misleading because it claims that the original ABC report said that the parent in question was playing Call of Duty with his children, when in fact the original report said no such thing.

 

[Realitycrash]

Seeing as how the WORST players I've met online sound like 8 year old...

Maybe parents should parent their kids before bitching about others'.

This is pretty much the truth.

Also...isn't CoD (and other multiplayer games where people would have mics) rated M? I mean...why would you have your 8 year old kids playing that in the first place?

Not saying that because a game is rated M, that gives people free reign to spew verbal abuse on whoever draws their ire, but it's kind of...yeah.

This.
Why the hell is your 8-year old playing Call of Duty?.
You think he is mature enough for violent games and realistically protrayed violence, but not to hear crude remarks?

All the above, seconded. Interesting that no mention of this is made in the news piece.

That said, online voice chat really IS a cesspool. The vileness of people online is why my Xbox Live account was dead after one month. I don't want to spend my free time with people like that.

Same.
One of the top reasons I stopped playing Halo 2 online.

The original news report doesn't mention COD specifically - for some reason the escapist writer did

Can you mention a few games an 8-year old can play on Xbox-Live and NOT be subjected to this kind of trashtalk?

 

[CaptainBill22]

Uh how about kicking the kid off the Xbox? They shouldn't be playing CoD to begin with.

 

[CaptainBill22]

Uh how about kicking the kid off the Xbox? They shouldn't be playing CoD to begin with.

 

[DirgeNovak]

Soooooo... you let your 8 year old play an M-rated game but don't want him hearing other players say "fuck"?
Well you're an idiot. Nuff said.

 

[Weaver]

I feel kind of left out....

...I never get abused over mic.... mabye that because Im on PSN and no one uses a mic (or Im not playing the right games)

Do you re-animate your avatar yourself? Seems like it's different all the time

 

[Musiclly enhanced]

THEN DONT BUY YOUR FUCKING 8 YEAR OLD A 18+ GAME
FUCK SAKE you stupid people
you dont buy him a porno to keep him occupied or sit him down next to an 18+ film, so how are video games supposed to be any different.
God damn terrible parents

 

[MorganL4]

So yeah, why are parents allowing their kids to play M rated games online?...... I mean I remember being a little kid and playing DOOM with my dad, but it was me my dad and some martian mutants, There were no profane words or anything, if you are going to allow a kid to play a game that is WAY above their age level, you need to be present IN THE ROOM engaging with them monitoring them in a controlled environment MEANING NO ONLINE PLAY for an M rated game.... If you want an online shooter for a kid go with Halo and disallow online play.

 

[wiisucksass]

good ol hypocritically America

 

[alandavidson]

This news story takes a very balanced approach to gaming. It's refreshing to see something other than the Faux News "All Games are Evil" crap.

But can't you just mute all of the other players? That seems like a pretty simple solution to me.