05-24-2003, 09:55 PM
THere are a few things I want to say about all this parenting and Video Game talk. I recently, did a research project on video games, parenting and negative effects. First I want to point out that there is no definitive proof to say that kids are influenced by video games, but while I can say that, there is no proof to say the contrary. While we can blame everyone we want, the blame isn't solely on one person. First off, we blame the parents saying they aren't doing hteir jobs, but then we also defend TV and video games saying they don't do anything to the kids either...so what makes kids violent? We all have a natural tendancy to be playful energetic and such, but we don't have a natural instinct to fire weapons, kill things and be devoid of any guilt in killing. There is plenty of blame all over the place. First off, for some reason, the general video gaming public is acquiring a larger and larger bloodlust. Why? I'm not exactly sure, I'm not a psychologist. But this leads to some dangerous mind sets. We have parental units who are OK with sporatic and bloody murder being shown on TV during prime time, and exposing their children to it. I will admit that i was exposed to it as well. Movies such as Terminator and Terminator 2 were no help in sculpting my mind. But I also had very engaging parents. I don't think that violence in video games and movies was all that big a problem for my generation. The violence in movies while being realistic was only graphic in certain situations (movies that no parent would ever willingly let their children see, like Pulp Fiction) and the video games were far from being the least bit realistic.
With newer video games and younger minds, we present ourselves a dillema. Games like Counter Strike produce kids that competitively play games of killing and death against each other. On top of that, we see very erratic and bad behavior when losing. So not only are we seeing glorification for who gets the most kills, but we also see inappropriate and maladjusted behavior...the type of behavior that we learn from playing games, sports and other little League things. I can honestly say that I learned a lot about guns from CS, and I'm sure other kids are as well.
Youths are impressionable. If you have a parent that participates with their children, they will most likely emulate them. You play ball with them, they will do the same thing, same with many other activities straight up to shaving. It's naive to think that setting your 8 year old child in front of a PS2, Gamecube or any other system with a violent video game is not going to influence them in the least. We have kids playing with GI Joes, pretending to be commandos. We have kids beating up people pretending to be Power Rangers. Do you think the ability to control that guy in GTA3 isn't going to glorify and make car jacking, assassination and any other bad dead look like fun? THe game is fun, why not real life? In that sense, parenting is at fault, parents need to know what their kids are up to, but in the same light, we can't just immediately lift all blame from the kids as well. They are the ones engaging the games.
The ESRB is a good idea, but no one enforces it because they receive flak from people (mostly parents) complaining that their kids aren't able to buy a game. I was pleased when I didn't rent GTA 3 and State of Emergency to kids, and even more pleased when I would show a parent why I didn't rent it to them...and they agreed on the decision. It wasn't because I relished joy in denying people the chance to rent (I reserved that for stuck-up prep kids who drove in their parents BMWs at 16), but because I feel that the current generation of kids are being raised in a world that is innapropriate for them. I'm no christian fundamentalist that thinks that everything is sinful. But I do think that in the current world we are living in, punishing your child (spanking them) is grounds for social services, all advertisements make kids feel that they are so much more special than anyone else and that they are more capable of doing anything they want (In reality, we already know that they aren't, anyways Confidence is good, arrogance is bad). And I think the last thing they need is a violent video game to feed into their impressionable sponge-like minds.
I think restricting video games is a necessity nowadays.
To address what people say:
Kakoi - YOu are one in a million. I'm sure you've seen plenty of mal-adjusted kids in your time. You can't just say, It work for me, it must work for you. Also, what about bad parenting makes kids violent? bad Parenting won't make a kid just snap and leaving them to their own devices allows for other ideas to flow into their mind. Parenting allows for a filter to throw out bad ideas, promote good ideas and set the kid straight. Bad parenting removes that filter. So whatever happens, it's usually because bad stuff comes into the kids mind...and I lump video games, bad TV and violent movies into that catagorey. Anyways, people with mental disorders constitutes a mild percentage of everyone in the world.
With newer video games and younger minds, we present ourselves a dillema. Games like Counter Strike produce kids that competitively play games of killing and death against each other. On top of that, we see very erratic and bad behavior when losing. So not only are we seeing glorification for who gets the most kills, but we also see inappropriate and maladjusted behavior...the type of behavior that we learn from playing games, sports and other little League things. I can honestly say that I learned a lot about guns from CS, and I'm sure other kids are as well.
Youths are impressionable. If you have a parent that participates with their children, they will most likely emulate them. You play ball with them, they will do the same thing, same with many other activities straight up to shaving. It's naive to think that setting your 8 year old child in front of a PS2, Gamecube or any other system with a violent video game is not going to influence them in the least. We have kids playing with GI Joes, pretending to be commandos. We have kids beating up people pretending to be Power Rangers. Do you think the ability to control that guy in GTA3 isn't going to glorify and make car jacking, assassination and any other bad dead look like fun? THe game is fun, why not real life? In that sense, parenting is at fault, parents need to know what their kids are up to, but in the same light, we can't just immediately lift all blame from the kids as well. They are the ones engaging the games.
The ESRB is a good idea, but no one enforces it because they receive flak from people (mostly parents) complaining that their kids aren't able to buy a game. I was pleased when I didn't rent GTA 3 and State of Emergency to kids, and even more pleased when I would show a parent why I didn't rent it to them...and they agreed on the decision. It wasn't because I relished joy in denying people the chance to rent (I reserved that for stuck-up prep kids who drove in their parents BMWs at 16), but because I feel that the current generation of kids are being raised in a world that is innapropriate for them. I'm no christian fundamentalist that thinks that everything is sinful. But I do think that in the current world we are living in, punishing your child (spanking them) is grounds for social services, all advertisements make kids feel that they are so much more special than anyone else and that they are more capable of doing anything they want (In reality, we already know that they aren't, anyways Confidence is good, arrogance is bad). And I think the last thing they need is a violent video game to feed into their impressionable sponge-like minds.
I think restricting video games is a necessity nowadays.
To address what people say:
Kakoi - YOu are one in a million. I'm sure you've seen plenty of mal-adjusted kids in your time. You can't just say, It work for me, it must work for you. Also, what about bad parenting makes kids violent? bad Parenting won't make a kid just snap and leaving them to their own devices allows for other ideas to flow into their mind. Parenting allows for a filter to throw out bad ideas, promote good ideas and set the kid straight. Bad parenting removes that filter. So whatever happens, it's usually because bad stuff comes into the kids mind...and I lump video games, bad TV and violent movies into that catagorey. Anyways, people with mental disorders constitutes a mild percentage of everyone in the world.