Does game censorship protect kids?
In stores like Game-stop are underaged minors able to easily get their hands on "Mature" games? Do you find game vendors are good at protecting kids from objectionable content and do they card on a regular basis? In my personal experience Game stores have been very good at this. But that may not be the case everywhere. Also why do some parents get upset when their son or daughter plays an offensive game yet they were the ones that bought it to begin with? Does game research help prevent these accidents? Should parents be more active in learning about a game before buying it for their children? If they know a game is "mature" and get it for their kids are they not the ones at fault instead of the vendor?
Comments
The ESRB or other ratings boards rate games just like movies. Every game has an age recommendation. Modern Video game consoles like the Xbox 360 and the Wii have a protection that parents can activate, so the kid cannot play games unsuitable for his or her age depending on the rating
And every console game for these systems needs an age recommendation, otherwise it will not run. In Germany for example the USK denied games like Dead Rising or Gears of War an age recommendation. Therefore these games couldn't be sold in Germany.
However, the parents must know about the ratings and mature games.
It's no use, if the kid demands mature oriented "GTA" or "Manhunt" or "Silent Hill" horror games and the parents buy them.
The game store clerk will not know if the parent is buying the game for himself or for the kid.
It's like the sale of tobacco. A kid will be unable to buy cigarettes. However if an adult buys the cigs and gives it to his kid, the clerk is not to blame.
The parents also don't need to play or know the games. They just need to look at the packaging for the age recommendation symbol. And they just need to know how to configure the kids gaming console to restrict the console to play only age appropriate games.
So yes, the parents are to blame if their kids play violent or sexual oriented video games.
Parents who buy their kids violent games and then get upset about it are pretty dumb. If the vendor is restricting sales of games to minors, then he's doing all that he can. He can't prevent some stupid mom from thinking that God of War will be a good history lesson and that the "M" in the corner stands for "Minerva". Parents are quick to screen out movies for their kids, but it seems that they're not willing to do the research to find out just what kind of games are suitable for kids.
It's a little bit like those parents who don't bother to ask kids about school and encourage good behavior but blame the school and teachers when their kids don't do well. They just don't seem to realize how much influence they have on their children's lives. And that's a sad, sad thing.
I believe it is the duty of a store or retailer to enforce the rating system. It's there for a reason and not just mere decoration.
However, the store can only do so much in terms of enforcing the rating system towards minors. In a case where the parent buys the game for their child , the rating system should serve as a guide to the parent. That being said, parents should always look for the rating and then make a rational decision as to whether or not their child can handle the content of the game. Who better to judge a child's maturity in handling certain content than their own parent(s).
I think parents should check the game out before buying it. If the game has Disney characters on the front (Kingdom Hearts), then even if it's rated Teen, younger children should have no problem with it. At the same time, parent's shouldn't be deceived by the Mature rating. Halo was rated Mature, but only because of the blood. Well guess what, the blood is blue and purple, and you can turn it off too, which would immediately make it a Teen game.
Sometimes, games are rated Mature just to make it look cool, because face it, there are no good games that are rated Teen anymore.
I think it should be up to the parents, but I don't think that all games should be sold to minors. Let's face it - it's a new era of gaming, where the polygons on the screen now look like real people doing real things. Back in the days of NES and SNES/Genesis, you really couldn't make a mature game...with a bunch of sprites on the screen, you barely make out blood, an ***, a tit, or anything bad. Remember when Mortal Combat came out? It was a huge deal because for the first time there was something that resembled blood squirting out of a person when he was getting beat. Now, it's laughable.
But games now can be very, very sexual in nature and contain very profane language and violence. I've never been a fan of censorship, but certain games just aren't for young children anymore. What Wal-Mart is doing, by not carrying some M-rated games, is a complete joke. But just like R and X rated movies, children shouldn't be allowed to purchase their analagous R and X rated video games.
Games now can be very, very sexual in nature and contain very profane language and violence. I've never been a fan of censorship, but certain games just aren't for young children anymore. What Wal-Mart is doing, by not carrying some M-rated games, is a complete joke. But just like R and X rated movies, children shouldn't be allowed to purchase their analagous R and X rated video games.
ok....i think not, because if you play games you know your not ganna bu kids games. your ganna get adult games, your kids are ganna see you playing them so whats the point in doing that. if you dont play games then yes it dase.