All the World's Wrongs: Games At Fault!

[Brad]

I don't have kids so my opinion on the matter is without any real insight but I consider exposing children to certain 18 related material to be a form of abuse. Yep, I've said it.

Of course it will vary depending on the child and their parents will have a good idea of what they're ready to be exposed to, but I've seen 1st hand how COD used as a babysitting device will turn young children into swearing, abusive, racist, aggressive rage kids... Just join any online shooter and listen to the pre-game lobby chatter and you'll see.

Well yeah, I make a judgement call. Generally I still won't let her watch a 15 movie and she's not interested in games beyond Mario, Zelda and Minecraft and The Sims. I was trying to find out the legality of it all really.

[Neon Ignition]

It depends really. I was 8 when I saw Nightmare on Elm Street and Robocop, I don't consider my parents or grandparents to have been abusive to me though and those films were far more violent media than CoD. Will I be letting my kid play violent games all the time? Nope. But it wouldn't freak me out if I found out he'd seen or played it at a friends as long as it wasn't what he was doing all the time. I don't want him to be bubble wrapped to things either. It's not so much the isolated aspects that are a concern, it's when whitewash approaches are used in response that things get out of control and that's the danger schools reacting so strongly on very ill-informed and face valued presumptions like this would be.

I'd feel safe saying that the majority of bad kids are products of bad parents. Society is far too scared to call out bad, or more commonly so, lazy parents yet you see them everywhere.

[The Moleman]

Is that down to the game though?

Not just COD, or even just games but a mixture of the past ten years of culture, I think society has deteriorated since when I was a kid and I'm only 29 now, maybe it's just me but a few of my mates of similar age and even middle age have the same opinion. Or maybe it's just the constantly depressing stories that the media is forcing down your neck...

So much has changed in the past 15 years though that I can understand to a certain degree at how parents can be totally ignorant of the type of content a 18 rated piece of media can contain. If you take 18 rated games from the late 90's and early millenium it's very tame by todays standard, it's funny in a way how GTA1 or Perfect Dark could have been considered 18+ material when compared to this years 'Hatred'.

I too watched violent movies when I was underage and they're my favorite films today, if I hadn't watched the likes of RoboCop, Aliens, The Thing, Predator ect ect I'd be a very boring person today indeed. But again when we were kids there wasn't these grindhouse torture porn films that are everywhere now, I just don't think films like Human Centipede or Hostel would have even been made 20-30 years ago. Even if you look at the films that were previously banned in the UK, Clockwork Orange, Texan Chainsaw, Evil Dead, The Exorcist ect ect, they're very tame. Times are a'changin.

I didn't have access to the internet until I was about 14 so I was at least partially mature enough to know what I was doing and exposing myself to when venturing online. Now you have instant access to extreme imagery. There's been a huge surge in preteen porn addicts, rapists and this thing where kids are sexting each other which is directly linked to children having unrestricted access to the internet. There's probably underlying problems with a lot of them and the media is looking for something to blame as usual, but I certainly think that films and games can be the catylists for certain behaviors.

As CMcK states parental blocks are easily applied on everything thesedays but I doubt the non techie adults would know that, I always find it funny and a little disturbing when a little kid runs up a massive bill due microtransactions and a credit card linked to a device without a single password... and I ALWAYS feel that the parent should pay the debt in full so it sets an example to the endless others that do the exact same thing all year round.

[randombs]

I wonder how fudged up my 19yo bro's head must be.

My parents were ok with violence and swearing(although mf and words like that would usually get a tut-tut from my dad). Sexy stuff was out, though. So I was allowed to watch Aliens by myself when I was younger(I think I first saw it when I was 12 or so).

One common theme among posters who've played/watched 18-rated stuff when they were younger is the feeling that our parents restricted some things and gave us certain freedoms but were providing other aspects of parenthood we needed - love, stability and so on. I think these are the key factors. Those kids screaming down their mics in CoD on the other hand...

I get that there are two main camps - the hardcore lockdown camp and the "their friends all play GTA so I have to give in". My parents' attitude regarding what I did at friends' houses was don't ask don't tell but under their roof the rules were set in stone. My bro has only now got a telly in his own room but it's also because he's started working instead of going to uni and obviously matured enough to be trusted to make his own decisions.

Yes, they can access all this crazy internet stuff but at the very least I'd want to lock it down in my own home, if only to show off my god-like IT skills. I'm gonna learn how to dox and hack fb accounts and maybe use those as leverage if my ones get annoying. The day I frape my son with an "I hate cleaning my room but I love c**k" status will be momentous.

[The Moleman]

Apologies if I sound a bit preachy... I don't mean to force my beliefs onto anyone I just feel that media content and it's ease of access can have a bad effect....

[Dogg Thang]

It does. What you're calling your beliefs are backed up by over 60 years of media research at this point. Negative media and media that is not age-appropriate have demonstrated negative effects.

However, it's not "one bad game=congrats, you're now a psycho" (which is why many of us have examples of what we saw as kids and we're not crazy, to our knowledge), there are a ton of other contributing factors such as socio-economic factors (which also ties into parenting which includes but is not limited to the media parents let their kids watch) and it won't effect everyone the same way because we're all different and some of us are better at dealing with certain things at certain ages (although this can fool some parents into thinking their kids are okay whereas what their seeing is desensitisation which could be the exact opposite of okay).

And what has also been shown is that more positive examples of media (in TV, that's educational content) can have a positive effect just as strong. Games have been shown to have positive effects and that gets reported too. But yes, the negative effects have been shown in the short term and in the long term. Which makes sense when you think about it on even a basic level because we're all forming our world view as kids and everything we see and hear contributes to that in some way.

Edit: One other thing worth adding here is that the ratings systems are not always accurate and that the closer a kid gets to being an adult, the harder it is to gauge appropriateness for that child. That's where good parenting comes into play. I've mentioned it before but I like to browse the info on Common Sense Media as well as looking at the age rating.

[Neon Ignition]

I know it's not a huge age gap, but I'm kind of surprised that Bloodborne has a 16 rating rather than an 18. Wonder what allowed it to dodge the higher rating

[Asura]

I know it's not a huge age gap, but I'm kind of surprised that Bloodborne has a 16 rating rather than an 18. Wonder what allowed it to dodge the higher rating

PEGI 18+ is reserved for very specific stuff, such as torture of innocents, killing of children, violence without any reverence for its cause and effect, or graphic sexual content.

[nakamura]

People are ****ed up. That's the long and short of it. Some of these adult movies with the violence or sexual content is just sickening.

I've never watched two girls one cup. I don't like the look of my own ****, why would I want to see two skanks eating their own, real or not.

[Brad]

I get that there are two main camps - the hardcore lockdown camp and the "their friends all play GTA so I have to give in".

That comes down to doing what is easy vs doing what is right. My daughter wanted to use Kik messenger. I said no. But all my friends use it! Really? Yes. Ok then, I'll contact the school and get them to include some information about it in the weekly newletter, detailing how dangerous it is for children to be using.

The message was included in the newsletter but it saddened me to hear that almost no parents at the school stopped their kids using it.

[S3M]

I know it's not a huge age gap, but I'm kind of surprised that Bloodborne has a 16 rating rather than an 18. Wonder what allowed it to dodge the higher rating

PEGI rating is solely down to the publisher, they fill in a form with the rating they want then send in some video of the game and that's it. (I did all the PEGI submission back when I worked on PSHome)

PEGI will only fine you if people complain about the rating at which point they double check the game to see if the publisher requested the right rating. You could create a 3+ game and submit it for a 18 PEGI rating if you wanted. There is some basic guidelines but that's about it, the BBFC are far tighter on the rating of content than PEGI.

PEGI should never have been brought into law and instead all games and movies should have been rated via the BBFC. The big problem is that PEGI went from being just a recommendation to legally enforceable and most people don't seem to know this.

I'm amazed how many people don't know the law about ratings it is illegal to supply a minor with content rated for older than them.

[dataDave]

Why is it pronounced "Peggy"? It's like that Fonejacker bloke. Can we start pronouncing the other one "Bubuffs"?

[Dogg Thang]

You mean you don't already?

[wakka]

Ezzerb

[Brad]

What's the peeguy rating of this game?