Most adults probably assumed that video stores are already prohibited from selling or renting to minors games rated “mature” and “adults only.” They’re not. To his credit, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., hopes to change that by encouraging state legislatures to pass restrictions. But a bill proposed by state Rep. Jim Ward, D-Wichita, to ban such sales to minors hasn’t even had a committee hearing this session. Why not?
In the end, of course, it’s up to parents to act like parents and not let their children play inappropriate video games. And, no, playing a violent video game doesn’t mean that a teen will go on a shooting rampage. But it is reasonable and responsible to expect that games rated for adults only are sold only to adults.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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24 Comments
I was suspicious of “Democrat” Jim Ward from the very first he visited with me.I told him at the time that he was just too conservative to be a Democrat. Since then, he has proved me right. He is no Democrat and this latest effort on his part proves it.
I am fully capable of regulating the video games my son plays or buys. “Democrat” Jim Ward is spinning waste of time legislation while he ignores the interests of his party and his district.
I think the notion that a teen who plays “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” will get the idea that it’s ok to steal cars and murder cops.
Hello?! Kids know the difference between make-believe and reality. If your kid decides to rob banks and shoot innocents after playing a video game, that says much more about your parenting skills and his environment than it does about some silly game. I think it means your kid is a sociopath and needs psychiatric help.
I played with guns when I was a little girl. During cops and robbers, I relished being the robber (”Hey! I shot you in your aorta, you’re supposed to be dead!!”). I watched bloody, gory movies every time my big sister had a slumber party. I turned out fine, because I grew up in a normal environment with great parents. I never once confused play with real life.
We need to stop thinking kids are mindless robots who can be reprogrammed by a cool new PS2 game./rant
That said, we shouldn’t treat game ratings any differently from movie ratings. It’s been awhile since I was a minor, but you need an adult to buy an R rated movie ticket if you’re underage, right? It’s only fair to apply that to games, also.
Eh, sorry. First sentence should read, “I think the notion that a teen who plays “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” will get the idea that it’s ok to steal cars and murder cops is crap”.My bad.
Hard, fast rule: Never let your child play a video game while eating a Twinkee…One way or another they will now have the prefect defense for a murder charge!
I don’t believe in censorship, but do we really need a game where the player scores points for raping and robbing a prostitute?
“I don’t believe in censorship, but do we really need a game where the player scores points for raping and robbing a prostitute?”-Sum1
Excellent point Sum1. Why not censor or ban this or any game in which players are able to “virtually” perform criminal behavior such as rob and rape a prostitute for points? With these games, you are not just watching, but you are actually role playing perverted criminal behavior.
What good to society could ever come from the existence such a thing? I can’t think of any.
What harm could come? Easy to see.
The problem these marketers have is that it is likely that few adults are interested in these juvenile games.
Up to parents.
It’s not unreasonable to regulate the sale of violent videogames to minors. I hope, though, that if it regulation does happen, we can have a single rating system (as opposed to different criteria for the ESRB and the law). We could also patronize those developers who make tame games. Others might follow. Go Tetris!
Up to parents. I’ll second that.
Too bad many parents don’t censore the “entertainment” their kids indulge in. Kids who are exposed to violence over and over often become desensitized to it.
Several people at work play these games which is how I’ve heard of them.Another favorite of theirs has a goal of killing as many police officers as they can.
Where is the common sense?
The same can be said about porn and rap music. The cool thing to do is pimp women and have a total disregard for the rule of law. Grand theft-auto is just another abomination culminated by secular-progressive society! Go secularism go!
“I don’t believe in censorship, but do we really need a game where the player scores points for raping and robbing a prostitute?”
No, because there is no game where you rape prostitutes. Not sure where you got that from.
“Another favorite of theirs has a goal of killing as many police officers as they can.
Where is the common sense?”
Considering all of two games have that as any sort of goal (and in all actuality, GTA doesn’t make it neccesary), it’s not a widespread problem. And of course you’re ignorning the film industry with “bad cop” films like Training Day or Crash. You can even head back to Robocop where police are brutally slaughtered. Video games are no dfferent or worse.
“What good to society could ever come from the existence such a thing? I can’t think of any.”
What good would come from a book with the same content? Music? Movies? It’s hypocritical to harp on one artistic medium and not the other.
How many times does it need to be said that:
GAMES ARE NOT FOR CHILDREN.
It’s an adult market now. That’s not to say there are no titles for a younger demographic. After all, only 18% of games end up being slapped with a M rating, though the popular media would like you to believe otherwise. However, the average gamer is close to or over 30. Government regulation is not the way to go here.
If you want that, then you must also want books with ratings slapped on them, all the while having the government tell you what you can read. Why don’t books have ratings by the way? I picked up a book the other day called Clickers where an old lady has her intestines ripped out in graphic detail. Why does Brownback not want this regulated? Oh, books are accepted now in society. How silly of me.
Then come movies which will be government regulated. Why are you not pushing a bill for movie regulation? Films are rated through the same basic process as the ESRB rates games. Oh wait. Movies are accepted in our society. How silly of me.
These laws will always be shot down, everytime, because politicians have no right to regulate violent media. It’s a waste of money and time to attempt to pass a bill through like this, much like the 20 or so other bills like this that have been put down in other states. Obvously, Browback wasn’t paying attention when he attempted to put this into effect.
As Matt pointed out above, there is no game where you rape anyone for points (excuse me, I believe there was an old atari game called Custer’s Revenge along those lines, and there -are- a special sub-genre of japanese computer games with extreme sexual content that may contain rape. None of these are titles you’ll be able to find in stores.).
Nor do you get “bonus points” in the GTA series for killing anyone in particular. While playing, you have the options of attacking anyone you want, and your decisions there are entirely a reflection on your character and the character of your fantasies, not the game. In fact, becoming a cop-killer simply guarantees in-game failure, because you’ll be beset by a never-ending stream of police, federal agents, and eventually national guardsmen. In other words, the game teaches you that you cannot win against the authorities because they always have more people, guns, and money than you do.
Also, as Mark noted, there are no laws enforcing the MPAA ratings system, or the parental advisory stickers on CDs. Not only is there no reason to treat the ESRB ratings any differently, according to the last FTC review of both ratings schemes and marketing practices the video games industry had “The most comprehensive system” and they suggested that “There is much in the video game industry’s ratings disclosure requirements that merits duplication by others”. The problem is that according to the same studies less than 30% of parents -ever- looked at the ESRB ratings (which are more visible, more accessible, and more consistent than the MPAA ratings standards, by the way).
As for the question about “what harm could come?”? Well, let’s see: In the past 13 years, which have seen the release of 11 Mortal Kombat games, Postal and its sequel, over a dozen gory survival horror games (Silent Hill 1-4, Clock Tower 1-3, Resident Evil 0-4 and spinoffs), 7 Grand Theft Auto Titles (and 2 expansion packs), True Crime: Streets of LA, 25 To Life, Manhunt, and the list goes on…well, in any case, in those 13 years:
-Overall Violent Crime is down 25% , back to 1970s levels (though still above the low of the early 1950s)(Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reports). The NCVR by the Bureau of Justice Statistics says that violent crime rates are the lowest they’ve been since it was started in 1973, and also has the rates of other crimes dropping further than the UCR, so I’ll use the more conservative UCR numbers for the most part.
-Homicide offending rates for 14-17 year-olds is at the lowest level ever recorded. (Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics NCVR)
-Forcible Rape is down 3% (FBI UCR)
-Robbery is down 31% (FBI UCR)
-Aggravated Assault is down 22% (FBI UCR)
-Property Crime is down 14% (FBI UCR)
-Burglary is down 17% (FBI UCR)
-Larceny-Theft is down 13% (FBI UCR)
-The National Center for Education Statistics (run out of the DoEd) records 17 homicides involving students, staff, and faculty going to, coming from, or at school in 2001-02 (the most recent year where statistics were available). This is a decrease of 50% from 1992-93.
In other words, even as video games have passed the music industry to become the second-largest (in terms of gross income) entertainment industry in America, just about any indicator for crime that you care to mention has been going -down-.
I could go on to A) poke holes in the few questionable studies attempting to link video games to “aggression” (which is a rather nebulous term and not to be conflated with “Violence” by the way), B) cite the court cases in Illinois and Michigan where similar laws have been tossed out as unconstitutional, and C) point to both government (surgeon general’s office, WSDOH, etc) and independant studies concluding that video games are -not- a significant contributor to youth violence or to violence in any age group, but I suspect this comment exceeded the attention span of the audience some time ago.
In any case, I think the point is clear enough. This is a non-existent problem, except perhaps in the sense that a great many people who are raising children are incredibly unqualified to do so.
I think kids could play games for adults but you have to watch him and if he does anything from or like the game call him to the couch and start spanking with your hand or belt to that little rascal and if he does not listen or undersstand the first time take his playstation 1,2,or 3 away and make him right 20 to 40 times, I your name will not do this ever again for this will send me to jail or get me killed
I’m with the docter i would get my boy and start spanking his little narrow minded butt I would see the kind of violence that my child does we from the hood my husband in jail because of games he copied infrigemented games that he loved so much. Im not going to let that happen to my child what we should do is try to make the games understandable to our children like scenes of sexuality and violence if we dont my son will be cappin a butt right now and not be usin any condoms and have a house full of kids runnin around causin trouble these things should be prevented by adults these are the games for kids Everyone teens for kids 13 and older Mature 17+ Adults 21+ these games should be explained by parents if this dont work use your hand or belt your choice and whoop his lil smart butt butt untill red or untill he says ok ok i wont do it I PROMISE MOMMY AND DADDY!!!!!!!!!!!! This was sister in the house i hope this note was usefull for you people that have problems with games for ADULTS!!!!! see yall later sister out
There’s a game where a person plays a zombie and eats the brains of people. If a kid plays that game and goes out and eats somebody’s brain then I’ll buy into Brownback’s nonsense that people mimic the fantasy life they play in games.
This is nothing more than the old rhetoric fundies spewed about Dungeons & Dragons back in the 80s. To date nobody has cast a magic missle spell or slaughtered an entire village with a +4 vorpal sword.
Perhaps if Brownback had some real issues to deal with, like health care, international terrorism, corporate corruption, or a way to prevent Congressmen from getting a raise each year then he wouldn’t have to focus on non-issues like videogames. It’s a game, get over it.
Hey Y’all it’s me again I’ve JUST heard that their making movies out of video games my son want’s to go see Max Payne about this cop who loses his wife and baby child.My son’s friend has Max Payne 1, and 2 I did not by the game because it was for mature people but if he goes sees it then he’ll now how gory it is and want to buy the game but his cousin that is 19 says he’ll buy it for him on his birthday i whoop his butt and not let him buy it for him but what scares me the most is if he buys it my baby will enjoy shooting cops and bad guys I found my husbans gun and and I threw it away I think games are okay for my children E to m as in Everyone to Mature as long as we explain to them what is good and what is’nt as for me I love video games Im a gamer myself you old timers say that games are wrong. Sit down in front of the playstation 1 or 2 and choose a game that looks intresting choose from E to M who knows maybe you and your child might bond together playing tetris, Max Payne, Metal Gear Solid The mummy returns The Scorpian King or even chicken little for the lil kids im not sayin you have to play it but as long as he’s happy you’ll be happy If you like Terminator or a movie you like, like monster house thats a great game to bond with your kids love them cherish your kids and if they do any stupid thing from the game or movie give them a big can of butt whoopin.If you guys also like The Matrix well here your chance to go buy the game but make sure you look at the top because my brother bought Rocky and he has a playstation 2 but ended up buying it for the gamecube please give games a chance who knows you might just might like the games their are also educational games like brain age or big brain academy. This is Big sister all see y’all later I’ll be back till next time bye bye.
Paragraphs are your friend.
It’s me again the docter I just got a BIG QUESTION It’s about Metal Gear Solid my son came home I just bought him 2 new games medal of honor front line. I have a movie i just bought, it’s called Saving Private Ryan 10 minuts later Istarted to watch the movie my son came the movie was based on a true story so my son comes and say’s hey dad why’d you buy the movie game and he told me what was going to happen because he saw it on the game and since the movie was based on a true story and made a game about it. So my son plays Metal Gear Solid and said to me that he saw on the internet that his favorite game was going to be made into a movie in 2008 so is Metal Gear Solid based on a true story because thanks to sister I actually like the game I was playing with my son im also done with the game and it’s great but i want to know if Metal Gear Solid is true, my son finished the game and he told me that in the end in 1960 their was an actuall bombing in alska and that metal Gear was real or it was just the bombing in a secret part of alaska that nobody knew about I got excited to know that he was real or hoped it was real and if you guys find out anything please wright right here at WE Blog and i still think that kids can play mature games as long as we can explain it to them OK SEE YOU LATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HOPE THIS MESSAGE CAN HELP ME AND OTHERS ABOUT WAR AND GAMES OK BYE BYE Y’ALL DOCTER OUT
Metal Gear Solid the game isn’t real. It may use real events that have happened as part of the story. But the game’s actual story line was created by Hideo Kojima. Metal Gear Solid is an example of how a game can be more entertaining than some of the schlock that makes it to tv and theaters. You just need to give it a chance.
As for the issue video game violence the average age of gamers is close to 30 so more games will be tilted towards a more mature audience than before. It is a parents job to monitor what their children watch on tv or games they play. If your child wants you to take them to buy a game ask them what its about. Take a look at what you cna find on the internet or even the clerk at the store.
As an 18 year old that has grown up playing video games I can testify to the fact that video games do not breed psychopaths. My parents did ask questions about what I was playing but did allow me to play some more mature games. They trusted that a mass of pixels would not alter my personality and morals. When you tell me a kid cracked his brother in the head with a hammer because Buggs Bunny did then I might consider your point of view.
According to the bible, it’s okay to hit prostitutes with large rocks. Rape, I’m not sure, but there’s none of that in any game mentioned (except the old Atari 2600 game Custers’ Revenge someone mentioned, and those were native americans, not prostitutes, and if you got ANYTHING out of those graphics I’d be amazed.)
poopy!!!