18 rated games and kids

[pauldavid]

[QUOTE 2260579, member: 1314"]No right answer – in that there’s no one right way to raise a child. You do what you think is best, with a bit of thought and with an understanding of the child. You’ve asked here, you’ve been given advice, and you need to contextualise that and make your own decision. For example with beer I allowed my (then) 11 year old half-a-pint of strong cider last Spring. My brother gives beer to his 3 year old twins – he’s done so since they were 2. Some parents will give their kids no drink at all. It’s all about the child in context.[/quote]
I think the twins were in my local last Friday night, I haven't got a problem with the bad language, feeling up the barmaid, smoking and general lairy attitude after 6 pints of Stella snakebite but shouldn't they be in bed before 10?

 

[Sandra6]

Using any game or programme as a babysitting device isn't great parenting, but I don't think it's time to make such things illegal.
I let my sons play gta whatever number it was at the time from when they were 12 or so.
I let them watch films that are rated for older than their years too. I wouldn't appreciate being arrested for it.

 

[RoyPSB]

My son is 11. For years, many of the kids the same age as him have been allowed 18 games like COD (some from just the age of 5 or 6!).

My Wife and I don't agree with this. It's very difficult when many of his mates parents think otherwise. IMHO, even if it's not illegal, it is wrong.

However, standards are clearly dramatically slipping everywhere. I'm amazed at the swearing in 12 certificate films these days - frequent use of the 'F' seems to be the norm. Disgraceful.

Perhaps I should be getting him 20 Bensons, a 4-pack of Tennents Super and a packet of 3 for his 12th Birthday!

 

[pauldavid]

My son is 11. For years, many of the kids the same age as him have been allowed 18 games like COD (some from just the age of 5 or 6!).

My Wife and I don't agree with this. It's very difficult when many of his mates parents think otherwise. IMHO, even if it's not illegal, it is wrong.

However, standards are clearly dramatically slipping everywhere. I'm amazed at the swearing in 12 certificate films these days - frequent use of the 'F' seems to be the norm. Disgraceful.

Perhaps I should be getting him 20 Bensons, a 4-pack of Tennents Super and a packet of 3 for his 12th Birthday!

Start him on skol, the tennants will be too strong for a new larker

 

[mark st1]

I let my 12 yr old Son play COD (not online) but I wouldn't let him play GTA. COD is the only adult rated game he owns I bought.

The game story (campaign) is what gives it the 18 rating also so why do you allow one but not the other just curious ?

 

[Dan151]

Kids are going to learn all the bad language off their friends anyway

 

[Sandra6]

My son is 11. For years, many of the kids the same age as him have been allowed 18 games like COD (some from just the age of 5 or 6!).

My Wife and I don't agree with this. It's very difficult when many of his mates parents think otherwise. IMHO, even if it's not illegal, it is wrong.

However, standards are clearly dramatically slipping everywhere. I'm amazed at the swearing in 12 certificate films these days - frequent use of the 'F' seems to be the norm. Disgraceful.

Perhaps I should be getting him 20 Bensons, a 4-pack of Tennents Super and a packet of 3 for his 12th Birthday!

Playing a game with violence and swearing or sexual reference is not the same as smoking and drinking, both of which carry significant health risks. It's only a game. If you don't like it, don't let your kids play it, but you can't criminalise those that do.

 

[MontyVeda]

I haven't played GTA since the original either, but I wonder if the realism and immersion in games now makes it harder to separate from reality for kids. A bit like Tom and Jerry cartoon violence vs Rambo gore.

....

Are you an actual real person or some character from a Mary Whitehouse sitcom?

Do you recall how your brain worked as child?

Did you run around with a toy gun as a child, pretending to shoot your friends, then get pee'd off because 'they don't die'?

I think children are more capable of separating fantasy and reality than some adults!

 

[Melonfish]

I vet all the games i let my 10 year old play, he does have some 18rated but these games have filters on to remove language and blood other 18 rated games never make it in the house, or for instance the ones he got with the console (second hand but brand new) were traded in for other games because i considered them too much.

i've never been a believer in the adage violent games breeds violent minds. frankly if it did i'd have killed thousands by now. not to mention all the zombies i'd have re-killed, cars punched to scrap metal, imp/leprechauns kicked for their phials of magic liquids, vases smashed (for rupees), street gangs beaten up/stabbed and the lemming genocide doesn't even register on the pol-pot scale...

no, kids have this amazing ability to merge fantasy with life whilst still understanding the difference.

 

[MrJamie]

Are you an actual real person or some character from a Mary Whitehouse sitcom?

Do you recall how your brain worked as child?

Did you run around with a toy gun as a child, pretending to shoot your friends, then get pee'd off because 'they don't die'?

I think children are more capable of separating fantasy and reality than some adults!

I was posting in the context of not knowing how more modern games affect kids, rather than meaning to imply violent video games are to blame for violent kids/criminals or whatever the old argument was. The Tom and Jerry vs Rambo was perhaps an ill-conceived analogy I used to highlight how realism affects ratings. Part of what I was thinking about is that modern online games in particular are far removed from the old games I played as a kid (even 2D GTA that Rob3rt mentioned) and as a previously avid gamer myself, I know countless people who's gaming has consumed them at one time or another and made them make poor choices, myself included. As I said in the paragraph you didn't quote I don't really have an issue with children and the games' content, (and play time can be moderated by parents) but the voice coms and interactions with others. So if you're curious it's more of a gamer/ex-gamer wondering how the games I see people 'investing' their lives into affect children, than someone out of touch but worried by sensationalist media.

 

[MontyVeda]

personally i think kids should be playing games and watching films way above their age rating. An American Werewolf in London is a far better film when you're 12, as is the Evil Dead, the Exorcist and countless others. As is GTA San Andreas, the educational Medal of Honour... yes they might shoot people in the head and hear some bad language, but was pretending to shoot people in the head and learnt all my swearwords long before high school.... things are scary for a reason and if you wait until the approved age, they simply aren't scary. Of course i wouldn't advise showing 18 certs to ten year olds and below, cert 15 is good for a ten year old i.e. Arnie's fantastic Last Action Hero.

If I had children... I'd only put my foot down of they started playing RPG's and fantasy battle... in fact, I'd chop their fecking heads off!

 

[Doseone]

No easy answer to this, a lot depends on the childs ability to separate fantasy from reality. My son is 10, we let him play games with a 12 rating and he has one game that we bought him for christmas which is a 15, but I'd seen the game being played, done some research on it and it is ok. I know he plays older rated games round his mates house and that doesn't worry me. I can see that by the time he's twelve he'll probably be allowed to play most games (not sure about GTA though!). Some kids will be able to play older rated games with no ill effects, some won't. You have to know your own kid and make the judgement call.

 

[lejogger]

After a good part of the day spent building snowmen and throwing snowballs at each other, when we finally came inside to dry off and warm up, I decided that my 9 year old son and I should sit and watch a DVD while building some of his Christmas lego. After reading this discussion a little earlier we settled on the 15 rated The Last Samurai.
The bad language he'd heard before... he knew it was wrong and he knows not to ever use it. He'd seen far worse violence on the playstation games his 18 year old half brother plays - and in my view there's nothing wrong with a little realism. You can't convert real life into a lego version like most films have been adapted to these days. At some point they need to be exposed to a bit of reality. He asked intelligent questions throughout about all kinds of Japanese culture. I actually think he appreciated it far more than many 15 year olds would.
If anything it left an educational impression with regards to different cultures, the nature of honour... and lets face it, virtually all hollywood films will have some sort of moral thread which ultimately pits right verses wrong. It's not so subtle that he wouldn't pick up on it.
In my view ratings are guidance. I alone will decide what is suitable for him and what he is mature enough to handle. After all, isn't that the true nature of parenting?

 

[Black Sheep]

It's one of those laws they'll never really be able to enforce, thankfully. I hate this concept of shielding kids from the real world, only to thrust it all upon them at 18. Up to 18 is precisely the time to learn all about it, IMO.

I always assumed they were more to inform a parent's decision when buying them while also stopping a child buying and playing their parent wouldn't want them to have - allowing the parent to choose to let them have an older rated game.

I played GTA when I was a kid, it didn't do me any harm!

Same here, but...

Having not played any games for approx 2.5 years, I don't know the contents of the latest iteration, but I played them when they were 2D/top down view through to the 1st or 2nd iteration on the PS2.

the versions following on from the 2D top down games allow you to run round in the 1st person having sex with prostitutes before running them over and stealing their cash etc, not something I'd want a 10 year old to be playing.

 

[fossyant]

Thread resurrection.

Am I a terrible parent who has point blank refused to buy GTA 5 for a 12 year old ?

FFS