Hello everyone
Today I bring up a very fabled and old debate in gaming culture since when I was a little kid during the "mothers against gaming" movement. For those out of touch, In the early to late 90s with the spawnings of the GTA franchise, Mortal Kombat and a few other main targets it was basically a militia set out to blame gaming for most modern massacres and child misbehavior. They went to multiple judicial levels to attempt to get M rated video games banned from store shelves but the judges ruled in favor or making them accessible at a certain age requirement similar to DVD and Movie media. It kinda led to ESRB if i'm not mistaken. But I could be wrong
So now I just call them the mothers against gaming movement as a blanket term.
The extremely fine line of parenting that many people especially in the younger parents 16-24 demographic seem to be very torn on still exists today though. And I wanted to see what all you folks would do if your child wanted to play a Mortal Kombat, a grand theft auto or a Call of Duty. (Popular forms of entertainment amongst kids more so then adults even) and see differing ideas on the topic from parents or people who want kids down the road. It's important talk.
Their seems to be two main types of parents from what I seen in general in regards to music, games movies, TV and all of the above. They tackle the topic two extremely different ways. I know many parents on both sides.
The hiding parentThe hiding parent are very common and pretty easy to explain. They just don't allow their child to play M rated games, watch R rated movies or listen to something like Eminem. They usually put child restrictions on media accounts, locking pins on TVs and supervise what their children do extremely critically and may even disbar teen rated games. But of course this opens the door for those who say "He'll find a way to do it when you aren't looking, So you are better of explaining it to him and educating. To me that's correct. Which leads us to further discussions later. And of course with being overly aggresive with censorship this can leak into things like creativity, freedom and happiness overall which again will be saved for later too
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Educate not Eliminate parentsEducate not Eliminate parents for the most part with some exceptions of course (nudity) will allow their child to watch a R rated move like the dark knight or whatever or play M rated games after first sitting down with them and explaining thoroughly why it is bad and why they can't do it in real life. Breaking down the rules of playing it and what they can expect to see and why it's there. The purpose of the media and then afterwards giving them free reign to explore it after first being taught.
As a whole I'm impartial to the parents who explain but allow. Mostly because it's 2018 and Kids will just play what they want at their friends house on steam and are most likely well versed in disarming parental locks when nobody is looking except then you won't be there to sit with them and explain it because you were too busy pretending the kid's arent elusive enough to play it behind your back in the digital age. Imo then is when the child will be corrupted. Alone with his friends, seeing crazy explicitive things while listening to Eminem on the school bus while you pretend like little Jimmy will never hear the word F***. We all were a kid once so we can kinda attest to that to some extent I imagine. Whatever was taboo at home was certainly popular at recess lol. The cool kid always had the Marylyn Manson or Eminem playing or the GTA. Or the most taboo of all...... The Nokia N gage
. So it's almost better to make sure they learn from their parent vs their friend. Same with drugs and sexual education. And especially the Nokia N Gage.
As a whole my parents had extremely lax policies on what I could or couldn't play. They took great efforts to explain and monitor it but not all out say no. If my grades were good, I was respectful to them and wasn't in trouble. They rewarded me with fun. It made for a happier childhood as a whole and I had fonder memories. Another big reason I say kids will find a way is because when I was a kid I wasn't allowed to play grand theft auto san andreas. It was the only game I wasn't allowed to play lol.
Except I did play it at my cousins house accross the street every day for the good portion of 6 months using a Tomb Raider case if anyone asked what we were playing because my mom didn't know one game from another lol.
But It didn't corrupt me because my parents thought me about violence in the video games at age 5 with Jet Force Gemeni killing the alien bugs. So it really did set the foundation blocks of knowing what was the digital world or the real world. Although I was bad for sneaking to play it and really shouldn't have. I do regret it very much. But It's just part of being a kid wanting to see what's cool I guess.
It's a very debatable and divicive topic with much to unpack. Which side do you think you take or are you somewhere in the grey area in the middle balancing both?
What are your thoughts on the topic? Thanks for sharing.