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Parents Ignore Age Ratings?

Posted by Zonk on from the pay-attention! dept.

GamesIndustry.biz has news of a ELSPA-funded research project that indicates that parents do not pay attention to ratings when purchasing games. From the article: "According to Freund, the study found a high awareness of the existence of videogame age ratings both among young gamers and among their parents - but parents tend to 'divorce themselves' from active involvement in deciding what their children play."

7 of 75 comments (clear)

  1. ok... by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "... but parents tend to 'divorce themselves' from active involvement in deciding what their children play."

    My dad didn't have any problem with me seeing R rated movies or playing violent video games at a young age. Was he 'divorced' from it? Eh, maybe. On the other hand, I never gave him a reason to worry.

    So what bearing does my anecdote have on anything? Nothing terribly substantial, other than GTA3 sold over 30 million copies yet there has been like 2 incidents blamed on it.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
    1. Re:ok... by Monkeman · · Score: 0, Interesting

      hammers and nails

      I'm sorry, but what?!

    2. Re:ok... by Gulthek · · Score: 2, Interesting

      My parents were the same. Violence and foul language were all ok in movies and videogames; while we were young (and supposedly easily influenced) they just made sure to remind us that some things are ok in fantasy land that aren't ok in the real world.

      To the best of my recollection I never had trouble distinguishing movies and videogames from the real world. In fact, my ability to separate fact from fiction comes in pretty handy; and that doesn't come from being isolated from the world until 18 and then flooded with it!

      I posit that these overreactionaries are the ones who cannot separate fantasy from reality. They willingly and easily believe anything that the television tells them, even if it says ludicrous things like their angelic children will turn into demonspawn if they play certain videogames, read certain books, or watch certain movies.

  2. Re:In Australia... by Seumas · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I find "family films" that use "poo poo" jokes, getting hit in the nut humor and other juvenile crap to be far more offensive and questionable than a little flesh or even a bit of violence. And there's a LOT of inuendo in a lot of "childrens" movies these days (take Grinch for example).

  3. I know I do by FullCircle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I ignore those ratings.

    Then again, I personally check into the games and movies my children get.

    My friends, reviews and my own two eyes are much more accurate than those ratings, plus I know the maturity level of each of my children.

    --
    If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
  4. Re:The myth of warping fragile little minds by parrillada · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A violent game is different from violent movies etc in that the player is an active participant in the violance rather than a passive bystander. Part of the argument is that, from a psychological point of view (this has been empirically studied) active participation (ie actually pulling a trigger or pressing the buttons in correlation with an action) has a more profound psychological effect than passively watching the same action.

    Now I personally am a complete libertarian when it comes to this issue, and think move/game ratings are absurd, but nonetheless it irks me to see people ignorant of the other side's actual argument.

    It seems very likely to me that videogame violence has statistically increased the likelyhood of already troubled people committing violent crime. The point is not that it will turn normal kids into monsters, but that it probabilistically increases violence in already unbalanced people, and, for scientific psychological reasons, does so more strongly than movies and other forms of violent media.

  5. A kid's reaction to GTA:SA and Katamari Damacy by MilenCent · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My cousin, it turns out, bought Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for her eleven-year-old son.

    When I heard that, it was all I could do to avoid doing a double-take. Mind you, she wasn't very concerned that he was interested in Dungeons & Dragons, which I had attributed to being rather cool of her (this is a region in which, to most folk, D&D all but equals Forces Of Ultimate Darkness).

    I don't know if she knows what the game's about or anything, or that it's filled with profanity, or contains situations very inappropriate for children -- you see, I don't think exposure to games like this warp kids' minds, but I am a bit concerned with the impression that what is depicted within is somehow normal, or even right, and kids *are* suceptable to that, especially when, on the schoolyard, they encounter other kids who'll try to emulate the behaviour patterns seen in games and movies in an effort to see "cool."

    What could I do against that kind of thing? Only thing I could: I brought over Katamari Damacy, and nearly flipped when I saw his jaw drop open when he saw the last level would take the humble ball from 1 meter all the way to 300m, and beyond. When he saw that the very island on which the level began would become part of the ball by the end....

    You're probably wondering how can this be any kind of remedy to GTA? It's simple: it's all about perspective. Just like Katamari Damacy is about how the world looks different, and yet suspeciously similar, when viewed at 5cm and 200m. It's all about exposing kids to as many different influences as they can get, making sure they get to see the really cool and unique along with the crap with which our culture is filled, and trusting that they'll be able to sort it all out for themselves.

    So, I really think Katamari Damacy should be played in schools.