What's your position on allowing kids to play adult games?

[Jason]

This was something I was pondering the other day whilst waiting for something to install. Some of us here are parents already, others of us are soon to be parents, and those of us that aren't expecting will at least have an opinion on the matter.

What is your view on allowing under-age kids to play 15+ or 18+ (US equivalent is 'T' and 'M', I believe...) rated games?

My personal view is that as long as I have the final say in what gets played and what doesn't, I don't have an objection to my children playing games that are aimed at audiences slightly older than they are. I wouldn't allow a 10 year-old to play GTA or Aliens Vs Predator, but I'd have no problem with allowing a 12-14 year-old to play Batman: Arkham Asylum or Call of Duty: World At War, providing I felt they were mature enough to handle it.

I don't have any issue with gore or anything like that, but I do worry that playing excessively violent games at a young age may have *some* effect on the way a young adolescent perceives the world around them. I'm not suggesting that a 13 year-old is going to play GTA: San Andreas and then immediately run round shooting up his school, but I wouldn't allow him/her to watch a film that contained graphic violence, excessive bad language and sex references at that age, so why would I allow them to play a game that enables them to carry out these acts at will?

There's a slight note of hypocrisy here, as I played the original GTA at about the age of 11-12, and played the sequels as and when they were released, and I like to think I turned out 'normal', but I guess my parents weren't in a situation where they were as knowledgeable about games, and on face appearance the original GTA looks fairly harmless - it's only when you really look a little closer that you realise it's a pretty adult game (for the time, at least).

[Knighto]

Jason, I agree with everything you said. When gaming is monitored as your example it'd be fine. Probably, all of us here played a lot of "mature" games as kids and probably we all turned out all right!

The effect of media on children is still a vague thing. For example, I'm afraid of being alone in the dark until this age and the only explanation I can think of is some horror movies and video games I was exposed a a child. However, my brother and a childhood friend of mine were exposed to the same things and yet they have no such fears at all. My brother finished the 1st Silent Hill on Playstation when he was only 10 years old. I was 15 and couldn't play the damn thing because I was too scared (I still consider the dream sequence at the beginning of the game one of the scariest things I've seen in my life!)

With all advances in science and psychology children's human mind and psychology are still unpentrateable, I think.

Normal people with a very similar way of thinking and morals and who would always take the right ethical choices in real life would still go in very different directions when it come to games. I never chose the "evil" choices in games, I feel very bad running over civilians in GTA and threw mony to what seemed to me like poor people in Assassin's Creed II (I know it's stupid, but it still felt like doing a good thing when beggars got up and ran to pick the money.) However, a friend of mine who is very like me in almost everything in life always choose the "evil" decisions in games and still plays GTA San Andreas because killing pedestrians there is much easier and more fun, as he says. Go figure!

[MyNameDidntFit]

My views, in a nutshell, are that, so long as the child is mature enough to understand the content of the game, they should be allowed to play it. I was six when I first played Half-Life (the first mature rated game I played), and I understood exactly what is was I was doing. I understood that shooting scientists and guards, whilst I could do it, wasn't something that you'd would do in real life. To me, so long as the child has that understanding, they can play and watch whatever they want.

I'd sooner stop my child watching the news than I would stop them playing GTA.

For example, I'm afraid of being alone in the dark until this age and the only explanation I can think of is some horror movies and video games I was exposed a a child.
Fear of the dark, and of being alone in the dark, in humans can be traced back as far as humans have existed. The dark represents to unknown; a place in which any manner of danger may--and, in the past, did--exist.

I'd be very hesitant to blame a fear of the dark on video games, or any other media, for that matter.

[Jason]

I'd sooner stop my child watching the news than I would stop them playing GTA.

Eh. I don't know about that. I wouldn't even put GTA in the same bracket as the news. The news, however horrendous and unpleasant it is, is something that is really happening out there. It reports on the subjects it covers, but doesn't glorify them - the chilling and sickening are presented as such - as chilling and sickening.

GTA on the other hand is an over the top game for entertainment purposes. It deliberately rewards players for antisocial behaviour and committing acts of violence towards other characters. That's fine, and I have no problem with it, but I don't think it's sending the right messages to what is still at that age an impressionable mind.
Once again, I don't for a second think that it's going to cause said child to run around killing their classmates, but as previously said, I wouldn't allow a 13 year-old to watch an 18-rated movie, so why would I allow them to play an 18-rated game?

[MyNameDidntFit]

GTA was simply an example. Any mature rated game can be put in its place as any mature rated game is going to glorify the killing of people. That I really don't care about because--despite not being a parent--I'd like to think that a parent should be able to teach their child well enough that killing and otherwise committing socially unacceptable acts is bad, no matter what the video game says.

News media, on the other hand, is, to a child's impressionable mind, 100% factual, all-round coverage of events that is to be trusted. That sort of thing is far more likely to shape a child's mind than any video game, movie, book or television show will.

[Jason]

It's certainly an interesting point, and there's definitely a good argument there. As for GTA, I also used it as an example because it gives the best scope for debate as they're not only some of the most controversial games out there, they're also among the best and most fun, and kids of that age are going to want to play them.

I agree that first and foremost a parent should be responsible for teaching their child a decent set of ethics and values - it's no good telling a child that they can't play an age-rated game if you let them run round maiming kittens or something whilst not playing that game.

On the other hand, if I'm teaching my child that attacking innocent bystanders and generally acting like a grade A tosser to anyone and everyone isn't the way to go, I'm contradicting myself if I then send them off to play a game that allows them to do exactly that.

[Astonix]

I'm not exactly becoming a parent any time soon but I still some views.

I wouldn't let one of my children play a game such as GTA at least until I think their capable of being able to think for themselves and I know they have some good morals already. I know younger children kind of like 12ish follow what they hear so I wouldn't let them play it, but, once they were like 15-16, becoming independent, I'd let them play it.

Was thinking as well, there are some games I don't think should be 18s after playing them myself. For example, MW2 (excluding the Airport mission, 'No Russian'. This was so wrong on so many levels) or AC2. So it's not necessarily the age of the game, it's whether I think they can handle what's on it. I wouldn't let a young kid play AC2, not because it's gory etc. but simply the storyline may mess them up a lot.

Agree with Knighto on no horrors. I had / have similar issues to him. I can't even go near a horror anymore because of how it's made me in the dark so I wouldn't let my kids end up like that either. I understand what MNDF is saying about it being due to the unknown. But I personally believe it only ever started due to horror movies and games.

The news is a touchy subject. I know for me, it's made me a little more... uncaring? If you can put it like that. Simply because I see just how bad things really are, I start to think other 'bad' things just aren't as bad anymore. It has led me to believe that the human race only longs for power.