Brought to you by the Gamerdads Network – “Never Too Old to Game!”. Check them out at http://www.gamerdads.co.uk
Whilst playing in the Nintendo Street Pass Zone at The Game Pad (Twitter: @thegamepad_ng) at Nottingham Gamecity 8, I thought I’d take a few moments to open a discussion on parental responsibility when it comes to video games…
An entertainment revolution:
With Video Games now overtaking movies in terms of entertainment revenue, and with companies such as Nintendo and the many builders of Android based games consoles making gaming more accessible to the “casual” market, games developers are finally getting the “free rein” as it were, to create new and engaging content for gamers in the same way as Hollywood movie makers have been doing for Decades, and this, like movies, includes content that is both family friendly and content that is very Adult orientated in its subject matter…
And yet, the mass media (read: certain Newspapers who will remain nameless here), Politicians, and even the general public still seem to regard games as “a toy” – and then act shocked when they hear of little Billy being caught playing an Adult oriented game…
Sore Subject?
We’ve covered this subject many time on the Gamerdads Podcast, discussing both from a Parents viewpoint and a Gamers viewpoint – I myself did open quite a heated but very intelligent debate amongst followers of my Twitter Feed only this week when I came across the now infamous “Torture Scene” in GTA5 (more on that in a later blog post).
My question is this – who is responsible for “keeping our kids safe” (as seems to be the rant of many-a clueless Politician/Right Wing Newspaper)? The Developers/Distributors? A governing body? The parents and only the Parents themselves? or a mixture of the above?
Double Standards?
Personally I wouldn’t let “little Billy” watch a DVD of one of the 18-rated “SAW” films, so why do I regularly see parents going into GAME/other shops and buying a copy of Call of Duty or GTA for their kid who they’ve made to wait outside so as not to raise suspicion? Is it a case of offering better education to these people and therefore offering them an alternative from the multitude of age appropriate games out there? Or do you think that games are just that – a game – and therefore it’s OK to let underage kids play 18-rated games and watch 18 rated movies?
Comment below or on the YouTube video and let me know your thoughts on the subject! 🙂
Moobit's Blog 