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NYT's "Games To Avoid" an Ironic, Perfect Gamer Wish List
MojoKid writes "From October to December, the advertising departments of a thousand companies exhort children to beg, cajole, and guilt-trip their parents for all manner of inappropriate digital entertainment. As supposedly informed gatekeepers, we sadly earthbound Santas are reduced to scouring the back pages of gaming review sites and magazines, trying to evaluate whether the tot at home is ready for Big Bird's Egg Hunt or Bayonetta. Luckily, The New York Times is here to help. In a recent article provokingly titled 'Ten Games to Cross off Your Child's Gift List,' the NYT names its list of big bads — the video games so foul, so gruesome, so perverse that we'd recommend you buy them immediately — for yourself. Alternatively, if you need gift ideas for the surly, pale teenager in your home whose body contains more plastic then your average d20, this is the newspaper clipping to stuff in your pocket. In other words, if you need a list like this to understand what games to not stuff little Johnny's stocking with this holiday season, you've got larger issues you should concern yourself with. We'd suggest picking up an auto-shotty and taking a few rounds against the horde — it's a wonderful stress relief and you're probably going to need it."
The reason I don't think it's appropriate to expose children to sexual material at a young age has to do with them not being mature enough to understand the full consequences of sex. It's easy enough to tell a child not to kill your brother or one of the other kids in class, but they simply aren't mentally prepared to understand the nuances of sex and when it's appropriate. When given a choice between telling a child sex is bad, don't do it, or avoiding the discussion until they are more prepared to understand I'll chose the latter.
Note: Nudity and sex are not the same thing. I don't agree with the puritanical position that nudity is bad and kids should be protected from it.