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Games - The Jury Is Out And Confused
Thanks to Blue's News for pointing to a New York Times article entitled 'On Video Games, the Jury Is Out and Confused' (registration required). It talks about the mixed messages being given to parents about video gaming, especially with regard to violent content, and its effect on their children: "In the face of contradictory, inconclusive or just plain confusing evidence, some parents... agonize over what limits to set." One concerned mother even has to keep her spouse in check as well: "My husband is a little hard to control. Sometimes he lets them rent games with little figures on top of buildings trying to shoot each other off." What limits do you or your relatives put on their children's gaming, and why?
The best guideline of any is to play *with* your children. Gaming can be a social event, if parents participate in it with their children. There's no need to let small children sit by their consoles/computers all day unsupervised.
As kids grow older, they need less supervising. If a parent judges their child to be mature enough, there's no need for any supervision. Now, the problem is that most people let the TV or the computer raise their kids instead of doing it themselves. Newsflash: Entertainment can never be a substitute for interaction.
How about parents actually act like parents and take some responsibility for their kids?
Which do you think would be more like a responsible parent:
a) Reviewing the games/movies/etc your child wants, and deciding if that's the kind of thing you want him/her to have.
or
b) Letting a bunch of people you don't (and probably never will) know tell you wht they think your child should be exposed to?
=Smidge=
...little figures on top of buildings trying to shoot each other off
reminds me of that old qbasic game where gorillas calculated tragectories and tried to blow each other up with bananas. occasionally my middleschool math teacher let us play that game during class. i never heard any stories about students throwing banana pipe bombs at eachother, though.
this whole thing of blaming violent activities on games is just part of an endemic problem with passing the buck. little murdurers just need to be made to face the music and be responsible for their own actions. no virtual finger pulled the trigger.
the truth may be that violent and disturbed people are drawn to violent and disturbing games. most people people who play the games have a clear grasp of what is fantasy and what is reality, but there are some who are already messed up in the head and warped games just add to the problem.
Every time you prohibit a child of committing virtual violence you're somehow assuming that that's real somehow. Video game violence is _not_ violence, and if you put it in the head of the child that doing that is wrong, you're completely blurring the notion of what's real and what's not.
I think it's OK for parents to limit the amount of video game a child plays, but it shouldn't have anything to do with morals. Its more of health issue. Kids should be out and playing more...