Community poll forum: Keeping violent video games away from children

If they are yours, then you are responsible for all they do until they are of legal age to be responsible for themselves. Too many people have children like my cat has kittens, they set no boundaries, are not acquainted with discipline. They expect the school, church, government and babysitter to raise their children,until there is a problem, then thy want to use every alphabet to excuse the behavior. They are too afraid to correct the children and want to be their friend. I say no violent video games, and I expect nothing less. I am the one that will have to loose everything if they screw up, just the parents of the Columbine two.

The parents are "MOSTLY" responsible for what kind of video games their children play, whether in their home or the kids are out away at family or a friend home. Having ground rules always effect children's behavior: especially ages 5-14. (And if your kids listen they will not want the cookie in the jar knowing it is time for dinner) DO NOT blame the developer or the vendor/retailers; their only interest in the games "violent or not" is to make money. So SELL,SELL,SELL & SELL some more is their philsophy. Blame the U.S. Gov't........I think NOT! You could be as young as 17 and be put in the REAL LIFE game or violents...WAR!!! They (US GOV'T) are not about to make a strict mandate "I'll take you out" rule to Big Business and restrict captialism. PARENTS IF YOU PROVIDE....THEN YOU MUST GUIDE.

What relevance is you getting turned on by a game?

"head every ten seconds doesnt turn me on"
Qoute from -"Developers need to get creative" by "winsleuth".

Game developers need to take a hard look at why they spend so much time creating violent games. I don't think there's a direct correlation between playing a violent game and committing a violent act, at least not for most people (my son knows it's just fantasy and wouldn't do any of that stuff). However, being surrounded by so much violent imagery serves to normalize violence in our society. It adds a bit more legitimacy to using violence at times when all of us would be better served to work things out in other ways.

Consider the magnitude of domestic violence in our country (it is enormous, believe me, I could point to statistics that would blow your mind if you didn't already have an idea). There is a norm in our society that men need to be in control, and if they aren't, they are wimps. So they think they need to control their partners, and so they use violence as their ultimate threat to keep them in line. (Most is violence by men against women, since they are generally bigger and stronger, although sometimes women commit violent acts, too).

Also consider the ease with which our country is able to start and sustain wars and other military maneuvers. Violent games & war games played by young men place into their consciousness that violence is a part of life. It's only a game, but when you add a call to patriotism by a leader who has created an atmosphere of fear, it seems right to join up.

Personally I think the violence in games is a substitute for real creativity. Yes, the graphics are cool, and it's exciting. But you can do a lot of great stuff with graphics and excitement without having violence be the focus of the games. Of course, realism means you've got to have some violence or the games seem kind of stupid. But why not put the violence where it belongs - as something that actually hurts and is to be avoided?

As far as children - they pick up the attitudes of the people who raise them, so if you're not violent, your child is more likely to emulate you than the games. But if kids don't have parents or caretakers who are present and model positive values, then they learn from other people, from their peers and from games. If parents are the only ones responsible for keeping violent games away from children, it isn't going to keep them from the children who are most in need of better role models. And those kids may very well grow up to cause problems for us and for our children someday.

So, sure, parents ought to be teaching good values to their own children but that's not going to help kids whose parents don't. And as long as people continue to contribute to normalizing violence, we're going to have a lot of it.

The sole responsibility for keeping violent games out of the hands of children is the parents why!? You ask because! The same reason I don't want uncle same or any other government telling me I cant eat cheerios because riboflavins not good for me or tuna might have dolphin in it DONT BE STUPID PEOPLE! And the rating system on the games is optional places like Wal-Mart enforce it but most other places do no which is the same for MOVIES! so go cry up someones elses tree about movies first before attacking video games, the only movies I know for sure a kid will not be able to buy is X rated. And as a matter of my own personal opinion the only kids having advert side effects from watching violent movies or playing violent video games are kids how

A. have been sheltered from said material and have no mechanism built up to cope with it and may act it out as a coping mecinisme I.e. stupid kids. 20% of the problem are sheltered kids.

B. are already sick in the head with I account for being 70% of the problem theses children get ignored there odd habits get overlooked and then they go conlinbin and everyone wonders why oh because they played mortal combat give me a freaking break!

the other 10% of the problem kids are anomaly because most kids get exposed to some degree of violence through television and elsewhere they do not have problems from playing these types of games so thats my opinion there like butt holes everyones got one but mines right all the time I eat plenty of fiber.

It's absolutely the responsibility of the parents, not the government, just like most everything else regarding computer usage like protecting kids form inappropriate web sites.

Parents know their kids best of all, not the FCC or US senators. They know their kids' maturity level, unique situation, and are the only ones suitable to monitor them personally.

The fact is all kids are different. Some 13-14 year olds are very mature and M rated games wouldn't have any adverse affect on them. Some 16-17 year olds might not be. And of course there all kind of other variables, like if their child plays games responsibly and is well-adjusted, or if he/she has a tendency to use it to escape reality rather than deal with actual problems. And of course rating a game depends on many factors and is highly subjective depending on what the particular rating organization looks for. It's not effective or fair for the government to simply use such an arbitrary system and then say, for example, that all kids under 17 are banned from a certain game just because an ESRB panel said so.

One other thing, depending on the government for a "nanny state" and to do jobs parents are supposed to do, is a slippery slope that has great potential to erode civil liberties.

Once it gets into regulating video games, then it'll be the web, then maybe you have to put in a credit card or other ID to access 'forbidden' web sites to prove you're 18 or older(which of course is then stored and leads back to you), then it records everything everyone does on the web in the name of "protecting children" like the Republicans want to do. Of course, immoral and power-hungry politicians will also seek to use this for political purposes and maybe declare other political views "subversive" and innappropriate for kids (like when Fox news pundits always warn against these evil "liberal" high school and college teachers who commit the great crime of, say, criticizing Bush and his policies or have students question the government). Even if this doesn't happen, it's best to leave parenting to parents in the first place.

Finally, and most importantly, I think this whole issue is extremely over-rated. There isn't any actual evidence whatsoever linking video games to criminal behavior, in fact during the same time video games became popular young people and children became statistically less violent. When I was younger like 12-13 I played violent, M-rated games and have never thought of killing someone or using violence in real life. Same thing with many of my friends. In fact, movies and to a lesser extent TV are MUCH worse than this, but video games are singled out because older politicians fear what they don't understand, and because many parents don't either they can use it as a scapegoat. Politicians don't want to study and fix harder and more complex issues like a failing public school system, gangs in poor areas, or any of the many other REAL problems facing America. P

Congressman like Joe Liebermann, IMHO, just want to distract people from the fact that they are failures at about everything, and so they just want to look good and show how supportive they are of traditional family values to get votes. Why have the courage to challenge unconstitutional spying, or bother thinking up a sound plan to get out of Iraq, when you can rant about how video games are destroying America?!

The consensus here is obviously that parents are the ones who are primarily if not totally responsible for their children's entertainment options and also their overall behavior up to a certain age. That's pretty well-established, although some here are laying part of the blame on the game developers, too.

I guess I'm not really as interested in these nuances as much as I'm interested in talking about how we as parents can *stop* our kids from buying and renting violent games and movies. I know they don't have the financial power to go out and buy these games, at least my kids can't buy them, so it comes down to renting them. One pretty sick thing is that kids can rent practically anything at local video stores regardless of ratings -- at that point a parent has to be vigilant and make sure the video store has received explicit direction that their children are not allowed to rent R or M games/videos (I think they can put these directions into the computers' account info, in many cases). Also, there are online rental sites like NetFlix and GameFly which make it easier to maintain parental control because hopefully only the owner of the account, the parent, has the password required before anyone can put a movie or game into the account's Q.

These are pretty decent developments in response to kids' sneaky ways of getting around the ratings systems. Of course, parental authority should make these things unnecessary, but kids will be kids and they'll always try to get what they want, behind their parents' backs if they have to.

Any other ideas on how to keep violent movies/games out of determined kids' hands?

Parents should be most responsible for keeping violent video games away from their children because they should decide whether or not they can play them, not the feds or the retailers

I'm a 14 year old gamer that has played many violent game and to the shock of many of you I have never killed anyone. I have this to say.

1. (In reply to the first post) Violent video games have a 17+ rating in Canada and the U.S 18+ is reserved for games that feature a lot of nudity and VERY few exist (I know almost every game and have only heard of 2)

2. Nintendo wii. A video game system where you HAVE to move around when playing. It comes with a controller, game, and almost no assembly required.

3. Games can be social. There is nothing like going around in a video game with a group of friends watching each other's backs and trying to keep each other alive can be a lot of fun. What better way to teach teamwork then taking a few rounds for you buddy

4. All the new game systems (ps2,ps3,game cube,x box, wii, x box 360) have a feature where parents can stop the system from playing any game with a rating of their choice

5. I've seen kids sit around playing video games all day and being just as active as their parents in doing so. If you spent some of your free time outside they might. (note might)


In closing I'll say that I have seen everything but WW2 blamed on video games. Yet have not seen ANY real life happenings. Unless you have some one say it was because of a game STOP blaming gamers.

In my opinion, keeping violent games away from children is parent's responsibility, just like keeping your child safe, well-fed, etc. For some particular reason, irresponsible parents tend to blame government, businesses, video gaming companies for their mistakes. Kids should not be exposed to violence in any form...Few days ago I read a report that stated that out of 100% cases, in about 40% of them violent shooters are introduced to children under age of 10 by their parents. Rather than playing shooters, better let your child play casual non-violent or educational games, like Dolphin Paradise: Wild Friends, that teach them about friendship, empathy, and environmental responsibility.