The ESRB Bites Back 60
Next Generation has an interview with ESRB president Patricia Vance, who is not taking the criticism of the Board lying down. From the article: "There are people who just don't believe in self regulation. They don't believe that an industry can regulate itself, even though there are plenty of examples of successful regulatory bodies out there, including the film business."
Re:I believe in self-regulation (Score:2, Interesting)
Which brings us to another point which is that the parents should be paying attention what their children are playing, watching, and listening to. My manager at work has a 13 year old son who has a playstation 2 and an xbox. She keeps an eye on him, however, and after she got home from work one day she allowed her son to have a friend over.
As it turned out, his friend brought over GTA: Vice City. So his mother is walking around the house cleaning up and hears them say something about some "titties". I havent played the game, appearently there are strip clubs in it...but she took the game away and told the *other* kids parents, to keep HER sone from playing the game, and to make sure the other childs parents knew what was in it.
This is how its supposed to work. Its bad enough when parents by mature rated games for their kids without thought, its worse when they dont pay attention to what their children are playing or doing. My manager doesnt allow the consoles to babysit her kids and actively watches what they do when they play games, get online, watch tv and movies or listen to music, and if she doesnt approve of something *SHE* stops them from doing it.
Kids will always, always, always want to be entertained by content more mature than they should be enjoying. Violent games and movies, skin mags and music videos with dancing scantily-clad women, or music and tv with language they probably shouldnt be familiar with at such a young age. THIS IS NORMAL. Hell, I remember wanting to check out some playboys when i was 11, watch the predator when i was 7, and listen to music full of harsh language when i was 13.
Its still the parents job to make sure they approve of what their kid is doing, and to stop them when they dont. My parents didnt watch me, so I did most of what I wanted. When they complained, i pointed this out to them. Mom, you werent around to keep tabs on me, and shes not happy with the way i grew up. She gets to deal with it because she slacked-off as a mother. So will others, and no amount of bitching about ratings and what kids can or cant buy is going to change that parents have to be responsible and watch their kids *themselves*