Violent Video Games Targeted

Chris Pirillo What Sound Does Your Alarm Clock Make? How Much do You Usually Tip? Who Needs Guitar Hero or Rock Band? The Good Side of iPhone 2.0Violent Video Games Targeted

Well, we had a war on poverty… That went well.
Then we had a war on drugs… A SPECTACULAR achievement!
So, let’s have a war on violent video games.

Ever since Albert Bandura did his research in the mid-1960s with the Bobo Doll there has been controversy about the imitation and modeling of adult aggressive behaviors by children. What many people don’t know is that Bandura went further and found that children modeled the aggressive adult behaviors that they saw on television. In recent research (about 2 years old) it was found that not only do children model this type of behavior but adolescents AND young adults. This research also noted that violent video games tend to produce aggressive behaviors. The problem is multifaceted beginning with irresponsible parenting and sales personnel as well as the fact that many societies have a violent underside. Hence, there’s not a single answer.

What people need to realize is that there is no substitute for good parenting. I believe that though the ERSB rating system is noble in its cause, it should not do all of the work for everyone. All they do is give a rating, it should be people’s jobs to look at the ratings and see what is appropriate and what is not. Making M rated games hard to get is not the answer. Kids who want to play Grand Theft Auto will play Grand Theft Auto. It is up to the parents to know what their kids are doing and to enforce the household’s policies on video game content. The ERSB simply tells you what the game has in it, and it should remain that way. The government shouldn’t be doing the parenting, the parents should be doing the parenting.

Game ratings are doing their job…and as one comment noted that most next gen consoles have family control panels….controls the games your kid can play…How long they can play…and if online play is allowed for them or not……it falls on the parents in the end…no more using gaming consoles to baabysit you kids ppl…tell them that beating a person to death with a baseball bat (GTA) is wrong…….. not hard to do…….

oh no! when 38 billion USD is lost on video games and the fed does not see taxes they will just beg for more games!

most games are rated M as in MONEY. they are made to sell.

I did an article for a newspaper a about six years ago on this. It personally does not surprise me that this issue is still on-going. Nonetheless, it is still one that needs to be reintroduced every now and then. I have to agree, though…what good is the rating system if no one is going to enforce it? ESRB will be wasting their time and money reintroducing new ratings and stores will still not card those certain individuals. :-P

I somehow get the impression that a lot of people still believe video games cause kids to be violent. Video games are just the newest thing being targeted, because the majority of middle aged people has never known them and doesn’t know that they are harmless.

What other things have had this kind of reputation? Rock music. And I’m talking Rock around the clock here, not some current day nu metal of sorts. Comic books, especially the ones that feature violent battles of good against evil. TV, just about every show has been targeted from Top Gear for speeding to the A-team for violence rather, ourselves, as most people that saw the A-team then are fully grown adults now.) Some even claimed the Teletubbies would “make” kids gay… Even earlier it was movies in the theater, opera, plays, books… And we have records from 3000 years ago that youths are rebelling and claims by adults that thing X or Y is what is causing it.

Fact is that millions have played video games and no more crime has come from that than the earlier generation that watched television. The ones being pushed over the edge by games or tv, were ready to be pushed over the edge by anything.

Now there are people calling for punishment for those who sell violent games to minors, based on a defunct and silly rating system. I agree with the other people who say that it’s the parents that should parent. The government does not need to decide wether or not little Johnny can play WOW or GTA. It does not even need to decide at what age they would recommend he does or doesn’t. Simply back off. Let the parents decide.

What should those parents decide? That is up to them. But believing that you are a better parent because your child is forbidden to play violent games, is silly. It reminds me of that aunt of mine that forbade her kids from playing with toy guns. Well meaning but uninformed. And would you know, her kids are not murderers today! But neither are their cousins that got to play with toy guns. Neither are millions that had those toys and played with them a lot.

So let me assume that you forbid those games. Are they not going to play them? You might as well believe that your 14 year old son does not masturbate, would never even try to surf for porn and that encrypted usb stick he has, really only contains his homework.

Age ratings are silly too. It assumes that kids at any age will behave just like all other kids the same age. To be on the safe side, they highered the bar. But who set the bar in the first place? Those ratings are arbitrary at best.

Also, in case you did not realise it… Many kids now play mmo’s, in browser. Often for free. What point do the ratings have in that case?

it’s the parents responsibility to know whats going on with their kid. No law will or should ever change that

to me, its all about the parenting. keep the ratings, make the parents look at them

Assuming this is about the NY bill (S 6401 A/A 11717), I strongly disagree with it. It requires all video games to be labeled and described with their content. That’s what ESRB ratings do. It also requires all new systems to have parental controls by 2010. We have them and it’s 2008. It also sets up an ‘advisory’ council to study the effects of violent video games on children. Aren’t there councils on this already? All this bill is doing is wasting our tax dollars (I live in NY) to create things we already have.
It’s up to the parents to enforce these things. If a parent lets a 5 year old shoot people and have blood splatter, it’s not the state’s fault, it’s the parent’s fault.

My kids were 12 years old when we found them using the first Grand Theft Auto, (which a friend had brought over). I called the parents, asked the Dad to come over to discuss the game. He was totally unaware of the contents of the game until I showed him a review I had printed off the internet. He wasn’t the only parent unaware of the contents. When I banned the game from my house after explaining it to my kids, I became the mean bad father because all the other kids were allowed to have it, along with cd’s where the (artist?) sings about slitting his wife’s throat and throwing the body into the trunk, so that he can have his daughter back!

My parents dont give a crap what i play im 16 and i dont see what the problem. I dont go steal a car or kill a cop just because i want to be carl johnson in gta-sa. Its freaking stupid. The ratings are just a guideline and not something that has to be strictly followed. The employees dont give a damn because there just working there its not like there a manager or something. So in my opinion the ratings are just a guideline and not just something a parent should follow although its recommended too it just doesn’t matter much.