Parents 'ignore game age ratings' 571
Jim Hall writes "With all the fervor recently over the 'Hot Coffee' mod and the upcoming 'Bully' game, I found it interesting that no press time seems to have been given to this little gem from the BBC: Parents 'ignore game age ratings'. I think most of us agree that the games are already rated appropriate to their audience - GTA:SA was previously rated "M" (17 and up) in the US, before public outcry forced the ESRB to move it to "AO" (18 and up). However, as this article points out, parents are more concerned about children spending too many hours playing games, rather than about what type of title they were playing."
Re:Do stores restrict sales by age? (Score:2, Informative)
Titles rated by Pegi (the european equilavent of ELSPA) don't fall under such a law, but the kind of titles that most people might find offensive are covered by the BBFC anyway.
Parenting the "right" way ? (Score:2, Informative)
Ratings are meant to be a guideline. Not necessarily a rule set in stone. My 11 year old has seen some R rated movies, with my approval. In fact, we're planning on watching 'Saving Private Ryan' in the near future. Why? Couple reasons.. He's pretty grounded in reality, so I'm not concerned with him getting a gun and going on a killing spree. He's studying history, and I think it's a really good historical movie.
I've let him watch other R rated movies too. And then there are PG and PG-13 movies that he's not allowed to see. The same goes for my other 2 boys.
It's a parents job to know their child, and to know what their child is ready for. Some children mature faster. Some mature slower. I feel completely comfortable with every decision I've made thus far and I'm extremely proud of how my children are turning out.
There have been times when I've made the "wrong" decision. I've let them do play games, or watch a TV show that they might not have been ready for. I learned from the experience and made sure they weren't exposed to that stuff anymore. After they matured a little more, I relaxed the restrictions a little.
It's up to the parents to deal with their children the right way. How about instead of all this legislation and other governmental crap, we set up some education for parents. How about some support groups? Maybe some free parenting classes? Maybe even an incentive for employers to allow their employees to go to these classes.
Dammit, I like my rights. I don't need the government telling me that I can't let my kid do this or that when I know perfectly well that my child is mature enough to handle it. Maybe the government should follow their own rules and when they're perfect, I'll think about it..
Re:Their lives are too stressful to pay attention! (Score:2, Informative)
Hmm, I never told anyone how they should raise their children. All I said is that I don't expect people to sit on their asses and only complain when SOMEONE ELSE doesn't raise their children correctly.
Re:Their lives are too stressful to pay attention! (Score:4, Informative)
I wonder what they would make of me then. I was one of the ones who would get bullied at school al the time. I then went home and took it out on the characters in the first person shooters or the pins at the bowling alley. It helped me cool off steam instead of punching someone in the nose.
Re:As a parent (Score:2, Informative)
I'm off at the #2 college in the world now (as of last year, according to the London Times... wooo Berkeley) and have enough hindsight to recognize that my parents raised me right. I still don't know quite how they did it, but your points describe a lot of the ground rules.
My folks are starting to take their hand off the switch -- and again, I think they're doing it right, cause now it's more of an adult-respect relationship than parent-kid relationship.
Then again, I have friends whose folks are still firmly grasping the switch. Part of controlling the switch is slowly letting go, too.
My two cents. Well done, and really, even when you don't think so, your kid will (and probably already does) respect your parenting.
Re:Their lives are too stressful to pay attention! (Score:2, Informative)
It's a slightly different situation in the UK than in the USA. All films must get a classification from the BBFC [bbfc.co.uk] while games tend to get a rating by the voluntary PEGI [pegi.info] (or the older ELSPA [elspa.com]). However certain games must also be submitted to the BBFC (e.g. GTA:SA has a BBFC 18 rating). On videos (and I believe also on games) these ratings are legally binding. For films shown at the cinema on the other hand, it's up to the local authority, however these nearly always use the BBFC rating (spiderman was one exception [guardian.co.uk]). The voluntary systems aren't legally binding and both Game [game.net] and Amazon [amazon.co.uk] describe them as guidelines and don't give the impression that they enforce them.
On the subject of the R18 [wikipedia.org] rating, this is used almost exclusively for hardcore porn and can only be sold in specially licenced shops (of which there are apparently about 90 in the UK)