Violence, Video Games and Children
Discussion in "General Gaming" started by racquelcreces , April 2012
Views: 77
Discussion in "General Gaming" started by racquelcreces , April 2012
Comments: 12
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Just as a heads up, the clipping is NSFW! This thread is alright though!
You know what really grinds my gears... when I see clippings of this and people making this huge 'issue' of violence in kids because of video games even bigger than it has to be, when it only comes down to parenting really, in my opinion. Obviously the original person who had made this sees it the same way as I do.
I feel parents need to be more responsible if they don't want their four year olds acting out these types of scenes. The rating on the game is there for a reason people!! If your kid is four, it is suggested that you buy games with the rating for 4 and under, not games like GTA and COD which have a mature rating! I'd give it a good guess that your kids wouldn't be acting out this way if they weren't exposed to that sort of thing if you didn't buy them the video games yourself!
Anyway, I just wanted to get a discussion going about how people feel about these types of things. I wrote a paper on it for my Media and Society class on how video games affect society and children specifically. I had to do both sides of the issue and to me, the side that says video games are violent, is just repulsive. They do bring up some good points, but as I said, those can be avoidable if people just listened to the game ratings or did their research before buying a game. That's what reviews are for as well, in a sense I would think.
But yes, what do you guys think?
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I think games can be a bad influence on children at a younger age, especially with new games as they use explicit language and content freely. So I do agree it's the parents fault for not monitoring what their kids are doing or have access to, which is a result of bad parenting. Games cannot be blamed, only parents for allowing it. Eventually if done right, they will know games are merely a form of entertainment, and what is right from wrong without affecting their judgement. Games do affect adults as well, just not with the same drastic impact. -
I agree that parents need to be more educated about what they are actually buying their children. Even so I don't truly believe that video games have as large of an impact on children as some people think. Though that is speaking from my own experience as kid, I could tell that the games were just fiction.
I also think that many parents aren't educated enough on the rating system. The ESRB has made it very easy to explain the content of a game but it is also vague on details. I remember when my mom heard Leon Kennedy swear in Resident Evil 4, she looked at the game with disgust and I could tell she was thinking "What kind of game is my son play?" Even though she was the one who bought it and scoped out the whole box for anything too graphic.
When the media gets hold of this they run with it though, kids re-enacting stunts from a game or movie. It's common and they blame the producers and companies that made the game. But what they don't tell you is the number of people that play it that understand it's a video game.
I haven't ranted in a while, if you couldn't tell. -
Also when you're kid has anger management issues or has a history with being very violent than highly competitive games should not be allowed. Then again if the person is old enough and doesn't like being told what to do then shits gonna get real -
bloodbath said:I think games can be a bad influence on children at a younger age, especially with new games as they use explicit language and content freely. So I do agree it's the parents fault for not monitoring what their kids are doing or have access to, which is a result of bad parenting. Games cannot be blamed, only parents for allowing it. Eventually if done right, they will know games are merely a form of entertainment, and what is right from wrong without affecting their judgement. Games do affect adults as well, just not with the same drastic impact.
Yes I agree with this. They can be a bad influence on children if they don't know 100% of what is going on. Yes, the media influences society BIG TIME especially with these games to some extent. I don't really approve of GTA too much only because of the prostitution and all of that. It teaches kids who don't know anything that this is (sometimes) the way that women are and I don't like it. Along with the racism involved and whatnot in GTA as well, I don't personally condone it.
I mean the first game to ever cause a real controversy would be Doom back in 1993 and that was only because there was shooting and blood. The games have gotten a lot more graphic and a lot more based on a society where ideals are running freely and changing what people think of each other. It's just sad.
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kingwithak said:Though that is speaking from my own experience as kid, I could tell that the games were just fiction.
Yes, that is what I believe as well. Most children realize that it is just a video game but people are like, OH NO, Virginia Tech was a result of that kid playing GTA when really, it was because he was depressed with things that were going on, not because of some video game!
kingwithak said:I also think that many parents aren't educated enough on the rating system. The ESRB has made it very easy to explain the content of a game but it is also vague on details.
Yes, I believe that as time goes on and our generation grows up and starts having kids, we will be able to research more into the games since we were introduced to it early, in a sense, whereas our parents and current parents are just starting out and don't know where to look or what to do except follow the ESRB rating and even then, sometimes, they don't even do that, they just buy the game and figure it out later that holy crap, this game isn't right for my kid. -
pr0ph3cyx said:Also when you're kid has anger management issues or has a history with being very violent than highly competitive games should not be allowed. Then again if the person is old enough and doesn't like being told what to do then shits gonna get real
Yes, I agree with this as well. I have personally seen it from my brother yelling at the television and chucking controllers at the TV and also from my uncle who is like 37, he STILL does this. It's ridiculous, but you'd think he would know better, but nope, he still continues to buy games that make him this angry, haha.
Kids need to realize that their parents are just looking out for them by doing this. They shouldn't have all hell break loose because they can't get a certain video game. They should just be able to accept that fact that they cannot play it. But we all know that wouldn't work anyway.
I realize that there is that concept of desensitization, but I mean, crap like the Saw series and video games like this, are going waaay too far in my opinion. We are all being desensitized ever since the first World War, I would say. We are being desensitized to people dying over in the Middle East, and being desensitized to killing and all of that junk. It's just scary to think about... -
I agree with most of the posters in the above debate. It is up to the parents to screen what games their kids are playing when they are too young to understand the difference between real life and fiction/entertainment. -
@Racquel, I think you might be interested to look at gaming classifications around the world then, since it's quite different to the US.
For example, here in Australia, the government has a large role in the rating system as games are judged by our classification board here to be determined what classification it should get. If no classification can be found (e.g. if a game can be considered an R18+ game), it gets rejected and banned from sale and import, simply because we don't technically have an R18+ classification. As such, we haven't received games like the recent Mortal Kombat (nor will we get the port headed to PS Vita), Syndicate... I'm sure there are a few others. We actually have more games banned than China, last I checked.
At the moment, there is a bit of an outcry over the fact that one of our states is pushing to restrict the sale of M15+ games to adults 18+ years, which defeats the purpose of the M15+ rating, but also stops things like older siblings purchasing more violent games for younger brothers and sisters.
I think this is quite different from the US system which is largely industry regulated if I'm correct? Here, since the government is regulating things, there is a reduced burden on parents to be responsible when buying games as the more violent games are supposedly just not allowed here. I think it does also come down to sales staff too, though, as they should have enough awareness of more controversial games to be able to warn/advise parents buying the game that certain content is not suitable for children. Realistically, the process in which parents usually get roped into buying a game doesn't offer much, if any, chance of investigating or reading reviews. If the parent still decides to purchase the game despite staff warning, it's their fault. This is something I made sure I did when I was working at EB Games (same as GameStop in the US). -
Drives me nuts when people and ignorant politicians blame video games for problems with young society. It's all how the children are raised, violent video games or not. You can grow up with cocaine-addicted parents and never play a video game in your life and end up stabbing someone in high school, or you can be raised by loving, engaging parents and grow up on Grand Theft Auto and never harm a soul. I have seen both of these scenarios first hand. -
I'll be honest I yell a lot at video games. Now I mostly yell at BF3 but I WOULD NEVER attack or hit or go insane like most kids you see in the video game news that kill there parents or something. I would never fight someone unless they hit a woman. You hit a woman and you're family is not going to recognize you when you get out of the hospital.
I only yell to blow off steam if I'm stressed. Other wise I just turn it off when I cant get any kills or the game refuses to work for me
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The way I see it, there is this kind of weird disconnect going on here. I feel like politicians are trying to take the action they are BECAUSE they don't trust the parents to raise their kids well. I think we all agree that parents aren't doing their job right now, but if you are the government, what are you going to do. At the very least if they make a big deal about it some parents might open their eyes and take action on their own. I personally hope the media kind of hypes it but then no gov't action ever takes place.
