You make some good points about the fact that we as people are amalgamations of what is around us - BUT, why is it that some figurehead makes the decisions about what is around us? How many senators crack down on parents who beat their kids (be it sever abuse or minor reprimands?) Where's the research showing whether or not a slap on the ass by ones parent pushes someone to violence?
The media and the public latch on to these theories because they are easy to grasp and they are easy ways out. OF COURSE kids karate kick people because of power rangers, but a child who has been raised to understand the fundamentals of social interaction will not take it at face value and will make an educated decision about whether or not that kick is appropriate...
It is not K-Mart's place to say whether or not little Timmy is mature enough to appreciate a game. What if a whole bunch of kids in Kentucky were abducted by a couple of mustached italians, are the K-Marts in Kentucky going to not sell Mario64 to kids now??? How absurd is that!? It's not their place, it's the parent of that child who needs to have the checks and balances in place- and if we have put all this trust into parents and teachers to raise the children of this society, then we need to extend that as far as we can and have them educate children and have them decide when the kids are actually mature.
When K-Mart begins doing something like this, it's time to start arguing about the affects of this sort of censorship rather than the effects of video games on kids. Neither you nor I nor anyone else has a right to comment on that unless you are a parent or unless you have something useful to contribute from a scientific/psychological/sociological standpoint, what people like us should be discussing is where this sort of censorship may lead.
One of my favorite quotes in relation to this topic is from comedian David Cross:
"and tell me...which video games did Hitler play?"
AP has cracked down on the Elian Wazzup parody, the two sites that had it: geocities.com/elian_true and newgrounds.com/portal/uploads/266_elian.swf have taken it off for fear of legal pressures from AP. Anyone know of alternate sites, or anyone download it for an ftp server??? -me
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You make some good points about the fact that we as people are amalgamations of what is around us - BUT, why is it that some figurehead makes the decisions about what is around us? How many senators crack down on parents who beat their kids (be it sever abuse or minor reprimands?) Where's the research showing whether or not a slap on the ass by ones parent pushes someone to violence?
The media and the public latch on to these theories because they are easy to grasp and they are easy ways out. OF COURSE kids karate kick people because of power rangers, but a child who has been raised to understand the fundamentals of social interaction will not take it at face value and will make an educated decision about whether or not that kick is appropriate...
It is not K-Mart's place to say whether or not little Timmy is mature enough to appreciate a game. What if a whole bunch of kids in Kentucky were abducted by a couple of mustached italians, are the K-Marts in Kentucky going to not sell Mario64 to kids now??? How absurd is that!? It's not their place, it's the parent of that child who needs to have the checks and balances in place- and if we have put all this trust into parents and teachers to raise the children of this society, then we need to extend that as far as we can and have them educate children and have them decide when the kids are actually mature.
When K-Mart begins doing something like this, it's time to start arguing about the affects of this sort of censorship rather than the effects of video games on kids. Neither you nor I nor anyone else has a right to comment on that unless you are a parent or unless you have something useful to contribute from a scientific/psychological/sociological standpoint, what people like us should be discussing is where this sort of censorship may lead.
One of my favorite quotes in relation to this topic is from comedian David Cross:
"and tell me...which video games did Hitler play?"
AP has cracked down on the Elian Wazzup parody, the two sites that had it: geocities.com/elian_true and newgrounds.com/portal/uploads/266_elian.swf have taken it off for fear of legal pressures from AP. Anyone know of alternate sites, or anyone download it for an ftp server??? -me