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This Year's MediaWise Videogame Report Card
Mercury News has the complete, unedited release of this year's MediaWise videogame report card. The bottom line of the release is that "Parents Can No Longer Ignore Their Children's Video Game Habits". Citing evidence that games are responsible for increased aggression and poor health, the report urges parents to take a more active role in their children's lives, and moderate their game usage. In many other areas of the report (which is typically quite negative) high marks were handed out. Gamespot has a synopsis of the findings. From that article: "Specialty game retailers were given an 'F' for allowing anyone to purchase titles rated M for Mature, despite whatever store policy might have been in place. Also, in a category that wasn't present in last year's report, the NIMF gave an 'incomplete' grade to Parental Involvement for the year. 'As the world of video games continues to evolve, parents are falling behind,' the group said in a statement. 'As we found last year, this year's parental survey uncovered an alarming gap between what kids say about the role of video games in their lives and what parents are willing to admit.'"
We make sure of it by heaping tons of chores on them....
No need to monitor what video games they buy.
If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
Does anyoe else question the validity of a study that dumbs down it's arguements to a lettered scale, using novelty instead of oh, I dunno, facts, to get their point across.
They would've done better to say "Ladies and Gentlemen, our Video Game Alert Scale has now been raised to burnt sienna..."
If TV can't raise America's kids, and now Videogames can't either, who is left?
Be careful doing that
All I can say is it's about time the parents are being talked about here. I'm sick of everyone thinking the government should regulate what kids can and can't play (they do that with other things too, like abortion, and it's sickening). It's the job of the parents to raise their own children. Make sure the parents are informed and the games have the proper labels so everyone knows what the content is (which the game makers are doing). Then tell and let the parents do their job.
Furthermore, the group said that increased playing time correlates to poor grades in school and attention problems.
Bullshit. I played almost constantly through middle and high school as well as college, and graduated both with honors. The argument that play time causes attention span problems is ridiculous and false, and I really thi
What do you know... The best substitute for old fashioned parenting is... old fashioned parenting.
They want parents to take an interest in their children's lives, and take responsibility for PARENTING??????? How dare they? That's what television and video games are supposed to be for! Man, the people who want our schools to do their parenting are going to have a field day going after this study!
"If TV can't raise America's kids, and now Videogames can't either, who is left?"
Computers. Hey! It worked for us.
The National Institute For Saying Modern Society Is EVIL!!! EVIL I TELL YOU, BURRRN THEM ALLLLL!!!!! (erm, sorry) says that videogames are as evil, bad and wrong as they said last year.
Shockingly, the rest of the world still continues about its business, igoring the weirdos on the street corner.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Look, this isn't really anything different from the past few years. "The games are violent and kids are getting violent because of it" and "Parents are failing to monitor the kids play"... hmm could there be a link? Perhaps the problem isn't about the violence of the game, but rather a failure of parents to manage the kids time playing the games.
I applaud the earlier poster who stated that his kids don't have time for games because they keep them busy with chores, etc. I believe kids should be able to play but their time should be moderated and limited.
I have several friends that use games as a carrot for good behaviour. If the kids are behaving, doing their chores, and getting good reports from school etc, then they get a hour or two credited to their "playtime bank". The kids have learned that failing to do as expected will cost them the credit and maybe cost them some time they have stored up. These same kids are learning to save up time so that they can go with dad to LAN parties and play, or spend a little more time one night playing that favourite game. But they are still limited in the amount of time they can play.
The games they play are checked out by the parents before the kids even get to play them. It helps that their father is a gamer as well, but at least he is taking the initiative to monitor what his kids are doing. I wonder if a large portion of the problem comes from the way many of our generation was raised. Our parents would put a tape in the VCR and let the boob tube babysit us. As we grew up we began to trust the screen to be friendly and so if the game is on a square glowing screen it must be OK, and we don't have to be engaged with our kids at all. Just feed them, send them to school and take them to sports.
Here I come to save the da... *thud*
I gotta get me a shorter cape.
Parents should be involved in their children's lives already. You can't say that Video Games do have impact in anyone's life, that is what parents are for in the case of children. They define what they think is best for their child and implement it. There are many reasons why things happen and to say that Video Games is the direct cause it stupid. Parents should get off their collective asses and play some games with the children both video and rec games.
With the Wii you can do both, Tennis anyone. \haha
"If you like Battlestar Galactica, you're probably a huge nerd." -Stephen Colbert
"The National Institute on Media and the Family, the nation's leading resource on the effects of media and video games on children..."
Yeah, I remember the last few reports they put out:
Seasame Street: This Whole Snuffleupagus Thing Really Pisses Off Kids
Mortal Kombat: DUDE TURNED INTO A FUCKING TIGER AND BIT THE GUYS HEAD OFF
3DO: Your Kids Will Fucking Hate You And Kill You In Your Sleep If You Buy This Thing
Capital Letters: Are Totally Awesome
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
Why is a group of whiners with no authority and no credibility with actual gamers given serious attention by Slashdot, much less Gamespot? Just because some front group calls themselves the "National Institute on X" does not make them an expert on X. Just because they have the ear of a senator does not mean they deserve respect.
Since they are a threat, their "report" deserves our attention, but reporting this as anything other than propoganda is playing directly into their hands. Would you give the same credulity to the press releases of creationists or animal rights activitsts? Why is their report reproduced without much analysis, criticism, and outright ridicule?
We win this battle by marginalizing our opponents, by chipping away the edifice on which they construct their credibility in public opinion. Jack Thompson the bafoon is their representative, not a faceless dispassionate scientific-sounding interest group.
I love how they all blame retailers and such for letting the kids have the games... but they never give the parents a grade for not parenting! I would give parents a F for not doing their job, and leaving the game company's to take the governments crap!
Understanding thru Complexity
As for health, I was breaking a sweat playing Wii tennis the other day. My body was sore the next day from too much Wii bowling and tennis combined. I'm pretty sure that's helping, not hurting my health, even with the minor pain.
As for aggression, I could see some games that could provoke that, but also ones that allow you to let your aggression out in the game, instead of on others.
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
The child might not percieve that the parent is involved in the decision of what games to buy, because the child picked the game off the shelf, and the parent only said yes or no, or perhaps the parent has raised the child in such a way that the child almost never picks an unacceptable game, thus the child has never had the parent negate a game selection. In both those cases, the parent was clearly involved, but the child might not percieve it that way.
The statistic about restricted gameplay is even easyer to explain. If a child must do homework immediatly after getting home from school, that is indeed a restriction on game time, but the child sees it as a rule unrelated to games. The same would be true of a bedtime, or a rule about coming to the table for dinner. Also, as with the first statistic, it may be that the child does a fairly good job of self-regulating game time, so although the parent is keeping an active eye on the situation, the child doesn't percieve any parental involvement.
The point is that I don't think these statistics are definitive enough to have them say anything, and the NIMF has only used them to draw the conclusions that they wanted in the first place.
If forums teach us anything, it is that logic and critical thinking should be required courses in the public schools.
You mean like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the like? I imagine those terrorists WOULD help, if only we still listened......
rhY
I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.
I'm sorry, but this "Playing the Wii is EXERCISE" meme really needs to die a painful death. I've played the Wii, I love it, I think the console is great -- but claiming that it equates to any sort of meaningful physical activity is laughable at best. If playing tennis on the Wii is making you sore, you should probably consider a REAL exercise program that doesn't involve video games.