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Software V-Chip for PC Games?
63N1U5 writes "CBS news is reporting that SMARTGUARD software is releasing a new application that will allow parents to control their children's PC gaming, a-la the V-Chip for television. The new software, called WallFly, uses the ESRB ratings database to determine if a game can be launched by the current PC user, based on the parents' preferences. Parents can also use this software to set limits on when and for how long their children can play PC games."
What makes it tick?
...Is self-learning and automatically updated so that existing policies and restrictions will apply to even the newest software without additional administration. ...Is hacker resistant. Attempts to tamper with or disable WallFly will cause an alert to be emailed to the parent. Renaming files or installing new games does not fool WallFly."
.exe file "metadata" matches a blocked title, which would be easy to 'fix'.
"Wallfly:
So it learns by itself what the files are? The ESRB doesn't publish the rating for a given md5sum (and even then, games could be patched with a NOP at the beginning or end, or games that update themselves would evade the checksum).
Unless it checks to see whether the title in the
Just some thoughts... any ideas?
Really nice picture on the product page of a father and son using an Apple iBook...
Shame the software is for Windows.
Personally I would suggest not buying games for a child that are rated above his/her age...
Also how does it stop a kid from playing Flash games in a web browser instead of researching homework...
Or that the kid probabally knows more about the computer than ma or pa.
When I was 10 (12 years ago), if my parents told me I couldn't play Mortal Kombat (one of the most violent games of the time) I would play it behind their backs. Most kids I know would do something similar. My parents could have instead not bought me the game, but nowadays anyone can just download games off the internet.
I take it most of you have forgotten what being a child is like - children won't behave perfectly if you "talk with them." Parents cannot (and should not) watch their children 24/7.
This technology will allow strict parents, who know they can't control their kids through normal means, to easily enforce rules. I personlly would not use it, but I can see why many parents would.
My oldest just turned 9.
We monitor his game usage pretty much all the time he is using it, and the computer is set up in such a way that anyone can see what's on the monitor at almost any time, as it is set up in the main living room.
He is only allowed to play games which:
1) I have played.
2) I do not feel is too violent or sexual in nature.
3) Which I feel will not alter his behaviour in an undesirable way.
I feel that #3 can be important. If you do not pay close attention to the way your child acts after they play a video game, the results could surprise you. He was playing what I had at the time thought of as a rather non-violent game - a space conquest game that is basically just a strategy game. There are no characters, no people of any kind in it at all, but it actually seemed to have a detrimental effect on him and he became more violent. Almost as soon as I cut his access off, his attitude and behaviour improved.
At another time, he was playing what I considered to be a graphically violent game, but it did not affect him adversely at all. In fact he ended up identifying with the characters and gaining compassion because of it.
I think that the ESRB ratings are a pretty good system, although they could still use improvement (what couldn't?).
As a parent, I have seriously considered getting the software in TFA, not because of the ratings system that it uses, but because it helps me regulate the amount of time he gets to use it for. It would be very useful to have an objective system by which I can "pay" him for doing his chores by granting him an extra hour a week to play. Trying to monitor his time on the computer is a lot harder without a tool like this.
I have complete control over my home computer, so it's not a matter of access to games, but of access for the TIME to play them. I would much rather punish my son by reducing his weekly allotment of computer play time by 1/2 an hour than standing him in time-out or making him do extra chores.
To me this is a tool to be used to help me parent effectively, not as a substitute for my parenting.
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d Capitalization really works: i helped my uncle jack off a horse
A) Why not just not buy them the games?
Because maybe you _didn't_ buy them the games, but they borrowed them from friends, or bought them with their own money; or maybe the games are for you, not for the little tykes;
B) Why, when I was a kid and they tried to do this to me, I hax0red the PC to let me do it anyway! Any average kid will be able to do this in about 5 minutes!
I call bullshit, and would like to see cite. "A person I know did it" is an anecdote. An anecdote is not the singular form of evidence. Sure, some kids will be able to get around this; some kids won't bother and will do something else. It's not like you're betting your life on their inability to hax0r the system.
C) Parents should just pay attention to their kids!
Right. Because the correct answer is for the parent to always watch over the kid's shoulder. That'll help the kid develop well.
Look, I'm not an advocate of this tool, and I wouldn't use it with my kids -- I grew up in a household where my dad's firearms were easily accessible to me with no lock in the way. Instead of hiding them from me, my dad taught me how to use them safely and said "whenever you'd like to shoot them, I'll go with you." Not quite the same thing with porn, but that's because I didn't ask. But some parents would like to do what they can to make it so their kids don't have access to these sorts of games, and while this isn't a panacea (hey Bobby, can I come over and play UberViolence? Thanks!), it can be helpful.
As long as their kid is a computer illiterate, and so socially inept as to not have any smarter friends.
How hard is it to hit enter a few times in the NT Offline Registry Editor and reset the Admin password?
Or, maybe make a copy of Bloody_Game.exe as Reader_Rabbit.exe (or notepad.exe, so it doesn't count as 'game time'), and execute that?
Or, try renaming the WallFly directory and reboot so that it can't be found and autostart?
When I was a teen, I was disassembling C=64 warez to see how the copy protection worked. Kids today aren't any stupider and won't even have it that hard! They'll simply do a Google search and find a dozen workable ways around it.
The time installing/updating the software would be better spent just unplugging the kids computer and moving it to a family area where you can watch what they're doing.
The admin at a BBS I post on handled the situation very cleverly with his kids. He and his wife were concerned about their 10 year-old (or so) son playing violent videogames with the other kids. They didn't want to ostracize him from his peers, nor did they want him to take videogame violence lightly. So the father sat down with him and watched Black Hawk Down, completely uncensored. Afterward, they talked about it and how scary violence can actually be.
The key isn't to shield your kids from violence; it's to instill a healthy respect for the damage that humans can do to each other.