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Parents Need To Be Informed
GamerDad writes "Dave Long looks at the recent gaming controversy and lays the blame squarely on the parents. 'If you didn't talk to them about this game before buying it for your child, then you chose to be uninformed and there's nothing myself, the game maker, the retailer or the government can do to help you. The information is out there. In fact, it's right here on GamerDad. Be smarter next time and take a couple minutes to check it out.'"
Easy. The younger you are, the more you will be affected by the game. Younger children have a harder time distinguishing reality from fantasy. Some people are ahead of the maturity curve, others are behind.
I am not calling for banning of any game. But saying these kind of things "should be at the bottom of my worry list" isn't true. As will all media, I screen what is appropriate for the age group. I am also careful not to oversanitize... when the kids are 18, they can do whatever they want. If I haven't allowed them to think about alternatives to what I consider "acceptable", they will not be able to make informed decisions.
Bottom line: parents need to be involved. I also think some of these games should be mandatory 18, like certain movies are. I also think some parents should have their "right" to procreate taken away.
Please mod -1, Orwellian.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
I agree that parents should be the custodians of their own children. The fact is that "concerned" men of influence in times past have noted that, due to the effects of corporate massified America, parents are no longer suitable guardians for their children. Hence the rise of parens patriae in the United States; the government now owns and is responsible for children (this is why kids can be forced to go to school, can be taken from incompentent parents and placed with others, and also why children will shortly be medicated on the state's sole oversight). Parents are allowed to care for children only under the government's watchful (or negligent) eye.
Parents, who have now been programmed to be just as much consumers of gaming and entertainment as their children, are still very useful: they provide an excellent scapegoat for public outrage - it was the parents' fault.
It's a wonderful standard. First eviscerate parenthood with state and business agendas, then act indignant when parents fail to protect their own kids from corporate-sponsored sleaze.