Of course not, and my bias is something I tried make clear while presenting a different point of view.

I'm not expecting to change anyone's mind, but if it at least causes thought then that's a good result.

Actually I do get certain aspects of what you're saying, just not convinced the good out weighs the bad.

From personal experience of such matters, I don't watch horror films because they come back to me and haunt me for some time afterwards, wondering around in my day to day life with murderous happenings in my mind is not a state of being that I enjoy, neither do I enjoy being afraid of the slightest sound or things that go bump in the night. Such things create a state of mind, no matter how much people want to deny the effects, they exist, for some more than others.

How do we legislate for the loonies and weirdos.:wonder:
Am I a weirdo for being affected by blood and gore.:wonder:
Or is the weirdo the one who thinks I'm being silly because it's just a game or a film.:wonder:

That's why ultimately I totally agree with age restrictions - so no, a kid should not IMO be playing CoD, or GTA, etc etc.

But there are many titles and genres under the heading of 'video games'; an analogy would be rejecting off all menu items from every curry shop in the country because a dodgy vindaloo gave you trouble.

I'm personally quite the fan of Civilization games for younger players - they instruct and educate in the areas of finance, prioritisation, history, cause-and-effect, negotiation, exploration, etc etc. The information included in the game behind major civilisations, wonders, technologies and similar is immense and extremely informative.

Agreed, when used as a tool all things computer related can have a very positive effect, but it does need to be managed and controlled.

There are many aspects to technology that I find disturbing, de-sensitising people to sex and violence being a major one, we as a society should be doing everything possible to slow the speed at which our children mature, the age of innocence is short enough as it is, but it's difficult trying to inform so as protect against the evils of the world and yet maintain the innocence of youth.

I don't think games such as the ones mentioned have any place in a childs up-bringing, well rounded adults are created via positive socialisation not negative solace.

LOL never mind having kids, don't even contemplate having kids if you don't even understand what education means. I'm not just saying it because I mean it.

It's not just about parents not having time to explain what's what to the kid. Formal and shared learning among your kid and his/her peers within some educational setting is extremely important, because it's free from the parents' bias. In addition, even if a competent, humane and open parent successfully informs the child of sex and sexuality related stuff, and if school double-handles it with updated info, what's the harm in that?? Fact is that a lot of parents are not educated enough themselves to educate their child (they may think that they are LOL), not even just with the 'common sense'. I believe that most parents with half the sense, may they form broken or intact homes, would appreciate the schools providing sex and sexuality related education, provided it's age appropriate.

A lot of sexual experimenting starts from school, often even within the school boundaries, and you say that school shouldn't provide sex education in classrooms?? LOL. :D


You prefer your imaginary child (I say imaginary, because I don't think you've had any children yet) rather play on COD than schools provide sex and sexuality related education to him/her, and that's up to you. Unlike you, I believe that sex and sexuality related education should be the part of schools' curriculum.

One more thing off the thread topic. It has been highlighted here many a times that some SN parents and adults want RE taken out of the schools curriculum as well. :cuckoo: Such parents and adults can do with some education themselves.

Back on the topic, I'd rather schools provide age appropriate sex education to my child than me or their dad letting him/her play on violent and sexualised computer games prematurely.

They sell lego that allows you to violently and graphically murder virtual people and shag vitrual prostitutes now?

Awesome :thumb:

(Pops off to local Lego store)

Agreed, but what about communication skills? Dealing with real people in real world scenarios?

Firstly I appreciate you putting the counter point in such a non confrontational way.

However reading between the lines I wonder whether the only thing playing video games makes you better at is playing video games.

I'd particularly like to see some evidence for the bolded statement at the end.

I watched plenty of horrors as a child (18's & 15's) probrarly why I'm such a horror buff now.
I'm guilty of letting my kids play battlefield GOW and halo etc, ( GTA is the one game they can't have).we also watch certain films (within reason)together, we also drift RC cars together! It's harmless fun.
Their both great boys, one has a weekend job, the other is top of his class at school, IMO it does no wrong! I won't begrudge them their toys/games of their generation.

I think the point of eye/hand coordination is a valid point especially in the case of the Nintendo Wii games. My youngest is 4 and has been playing Wii Sports, in particular the 10 pin bowling, with his older siblings since he was 2 because he couldn't stand missing out on what he saw as them having fun. He just picked up a controller one day when they were playing and tried to copy them and he just went from there. The learning of how to play those games at such a young age I saw as beneficial because of the motor skills gained in the control required to play the games competitively with his siblings. He wouldn't have gained that movement control pushing toys around the floor.

In addition to that when they play the Wii they aren't sitting down, they are up moving about constantly whether it's 3 player tennis or bowling or baseball. He doesn't play xbox/ps3 as I wouldn't allow that at his age, but if he asks to play Wii Sports and they all enjoy themselves (and I play as well) then I know it's not doing them any harm.

Don't have kids if you don't know what education means.

That's this country screwed then the amount of chavs popping kids out.
Anyhow me kids here no.kids should be allowed to grow and freely do what kids do.Not having mine constantly monitored by the PC elites in this country and fed namby pamby info poisoning their minds.sadly I think I'm the last generation of kids growing up that was free from all this.
Said to her he can be raised in Czech,mutual agreement.

No problem - and thanks for listening.

An interesting point. It is no surprise that practising at something makes you better at that thing, but the question is whether being better at that thing helps elsewhere.

For that one specifically a quick google reveals the following articles:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...47563214002672
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releas...deo-games.aspx

There is also a Nature article supporting it that's sadly paywalled called "Brain training: Games to do you good.".

Hopefully that helps, but I can hunt for more articles if you need more; I've tried to stay away from simple opinion pieces, and all the real data is either paywalled or very dry reading.

A few of the studies I came across mentioned about modern online games actually helping with communication skills.

In terms of benefits, some video games are used in therapies, and some are made specially for therapies e.g. for Dementia. Tetris has been beneficial to prevent further damage by psychological trauma, and some game imagery is often used for treating veterans etc. in evidence based exposure therapies.

I don't think such games are so harmful that they shouldn't be allowed to even exist. It's really about kids spending appropriate time on playing age appropriate computer games.

I think these active wii type games are, as you point out, an exception to the rule. My tiny discomfort with them is that they act as a gateway for small kids into the world of video games.

Maybe they wont be happy playing sonic the hedgehog but unfortunately for them that is the age restriction rating that is suitable for them at the age they are. My 8 year old son might prefer a beer over a fruit shoot but i certainly wont be letting him have one until hes old enough. Kids nowadays are too used to getting there own way and parents use computers far too much to get out of spending quality time with their kids and raising them properly in my opinion. Kids playing gta will probably grow up thinking drugs rape killing folk and stealing things is the norm. I fail to see why any parent would let their child play a game like that :cuckoo:


^^^^^Totally agree with this ^^^^

Didn’t do me and all the mates I grew up with no harm.
Some have gone on to be very successful people.
none of them have robbed,raped,or gunfights.
We did get up to no good sometimes, but we all knew you didn't cross a certain point.I knew if did something seriously wrong I would be in big trouble by my father.
Seems to be what's missing nowadays,but we will just keep blaming computer games and movies,because its so much easier.

Thanks, I'll have a read of those links later. Perhaps they'll make me feel a bit better for when my kids bully me into buying them a console:lol1:

I do agree with this, certainly to a point.

Not so much computer games, but I did see some films in my younger years that were unsuitable for my age, and I too, have not turned into some murderous loon. Perhaps because I was brought up to know right from wrong, real from pretend, and have boundaries I knew not to go way past, the odd film did no harm, or perhaps because I'm not some sort of psycho, said films didn't give me ideas? :wonder:

All that said, if I had kids (certainly pre secondary school age) I wouldn't be letting them play on certain games or even watch certain films these days. Both are far more realistic and graphic than anything I remember being exposed to growing up, and no matter how well I thought I was bringing them up, I don't think I'd be doing right by them exposing them to the level of violence etc. contained in these games at such a young age. They may well not go on to become serial rapists/killers or such, but why take the risk of damaging their little mind? What really is to be gained by letting such young children play certain games, so unsuitable for their age?

I am genuinely interested to know from parents, why they'd want or be happy (or allow) for their kids to play these types of games. I'm not talking about allowing 15/16/17 year olds to play, but young kids. When there are so many games available, some just fun/entertaining, some educational/help build skills, some fantasy, what genuine reason is there for the likes of GTA etc. to be in their playlist?

Lisa, I think the answer to your question is that they have poor judgement.

I'd agree, but I'm just curious as to what reasons they'd give. I can't think of any decent reason why a parent would have let their kids (certainly pre teen) play on said games when there is so much other choice out there, more suited to their age.

This is what I was trying to get across in my post you put it better :thumb: not saying they will grow up to do these things but why expose them to it at such a young age and like it or not there will always be the one kid that does take it in and re enact things they see on these types of games. In fact their was a case not so long ago in the papers where a 19 year old did just that and blamed the game!! So sorry but if a so called adult can have his mind warped by it a younger child certainly can

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/2497978/Grand-Theft-Auto-blamed-over-Thai-taxi-driver-murder.html

Bit Lisa age ratings have been about for films for years,its only recently been on computer games recently in age terms,enforced since 2012.Now before all the age restriction would you have even thought about it your kids playing cod type games?. Now.Its enforced people are over conscious about it.so have your own mind and don't always follow pc elite.

I'll back you up on mine craft, the things my boys build out of just coloured blocks and how they learn to do different things to manipulate said blocks in different ways to achieve different effects isn't something to be sniffed at. Anyone who's taken the plunge and tried it themselves would 'epic fail' as they say to me.

I'll never be convinced about violent games. I watched snippets of violent films as a lad but the snippets made it rare and shocking. If id had been allowed to watch Robocop on repeat then I would imagine violence would hold less of a shock factor.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The effects of video games and bad parenting can be seen if you met my eldest lad and my youngest at the same time. A clever parent uses an Xbox to their advantage and uses it with limits.
I'll never forget my mum cutting the TV wire when we were kids and attaching two connectors to either end. If we hadn't done our chores by the time she'd finished work we simply didn't watch TV all night. She'd probably get done for child abuse now.

Err absolutely I would, it's nothing to do with a number printed on the front of the box but judging the content of the game. Any parent who lets a primary school age child play these games is a disgrace and I hope they eventually get in trouble for it.

At a recent recruiting event one of my soldiers was dressed in full rig, Osprey Body armour, Helmet, Monocle, knee pads, gloves, SA80 A2 with all the applique torches with a Glock in a holster.


A young lad of about 10 asked him about his rifle and kit etc etc then how many times he had died!!!!!!!


So quick as a flash I ask him what does he mean, to which he replies "You know like Call of Duty".

No, of course I wouldn't have thought about what my kids were being exposed to if there wasn't a little number on the cover. Why on earth would I be a responsible parent and check if something was suitable for myself? :rolleyes:;)

I don't think it's about political correctness either. I'm not holier than thou, saying age restrictions should be adhered to 100%, but I really don't think these types of games are suitable for young children. The odd film of a higher age rating is one thing, but prolonged exposure to quite strong violence and adult content, I just don't think is right.

I am still waiting for any parent of young kids playing these to enlighten us (with views such as mine) as to why you choose to let them play these sorts of games when there is so much more available?

+1. :thumb:

We've had a member here who said that his 4 YO plays on GTA 18+. Not sure if he lets his child mug, molest and shoot prostitutes on that, because I hear that you don't have to go on those bits and do that, if you don't want to. This member may post on this thread to enlighten us.